The Providence bartender, who has not worked since the coronavirus pandemic ravaged his restaurant in March, logs in every morning in fact to look for work. He has applied for jobs at banks, at retailers in shopping malls and at phone shops. Only one employer responded, and that was to turn him down.
“Everyone pretends they’re looking for us,” said Carroll, 30, who did almost the same thing about the improved unemployment rate he did at work. “They are not the ones who are confronted, ‘Should I buy groceries or should I put $ 200 on my hair this week?’ “
His message to Congress is simple: “Put yourself in our position and do something.”
Democrats want to continue with the $ 600 incentive until early next year, while Republicans proposed cutting the improvement to $ 200 for at least two months and then to 70% of the former wage of the unemployed. This week, Senate Republicans drafted a measure that would provide a weekly supplement of $ 300, and put pressure on Democrats to accept a more limited proposal.
Payments for unemployed people in the state were never designed to replace benefits, but to give the unemployed some income to support them until they find new positions. They typically replace on average about 40% to 45% of the salary of a person without a job.
The benefits are nice in many states. The average pay in June ranged from $ 183 in Louisiana to $ 456 in Hawaii, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. But the unemployed in two dozen states receive on average less than $ 300 a week.
That’s one reason why Congress decided to provide an additional $ 600 a week for four months as part of its historic improvement of the nation’s unemployment program in the $ 2 trillion coronavirus relief package at the end of March. The extra funds were designed to leave people at home at a time when government officials did not want them to go to work or look for work. Many thought the economy would recover by August, but that is not the case.
To date, there have been at least 19 states – Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah – are approved by the agency. Kentucky and Montana will provide residents with an additional $ 100, making the total improvement $ 400 per week.
Arizona has already begun distributing the funds, sending more than $ 200 million to about 400,000 claimants earlier this week.
But the president’s addition will not do much for Terri Onick, who now receives only $ 184 in Florida benefits.
After losing her job as a barista in a food hall in March, Onick cut her spending to make sure her improved unemployment benefits met her needs, even if it was a little less than she had made at work. She lost cable and started using her bike instead of her car. She stopped going to the nail salon and did her own gardening.
Knowing the federal impulse would expire on July 31, the Miami resident managed to set up some money for her basic expenses in August and September. But she’s nervous about being able to find a job before October – and about the ongoing stalemate on Capitol Hill.
“My current unemployment will not even pay my rent and we will not even discuss car insurance. We are not talking about electricity and food,” said Onick, 46, who applied for hundreds of jobs during the pandemic but hopes to get her old job back. if the current drops in coronavirus cases.
“I hope we have reached our actual plateau in Miami. And we will start to open backup,” she continued. “That is what I really hope for. But if that does not happen, we need help from our government.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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