Millionaire Rs saying that $600-a-week in Unemployment Benefits is too generous

[Igel]

3. You leave out a lot of information.

And assume you're presenting all the information. It's harder to make the case with all the information, but that's no excuse.

That $600/week is in addition to unemployment benefits. It is not the unemployment benefits.

So if you make $8/hr for a total of $16000 a year in TX, you get about $160/week in benefits for as long as they last. That's only $8,300 a year (rounding a bit). Clearly less than your old crappy job. I don't know if payroll tax comes out of that or not, but at that low level of income the amount would be neither large nor unimportant. (Yeah, it would be small but still be important).

With the added bonus, you'd be making 38,300 a year. Get laid off from $16k/year, next week (assuming benefits all approved quickly) your income is more than 233% higher. Equivalent of more than $18/hr, a $10/hr raise. That's not "living", that's very nearly "median." Toss in the one-time $1200/person and it's likely that the bottom was median.

You go back to work and you face almost a 60% pay cut. Tell me that's not a disincentive.

Which is why some workers have said they're in better shape laid off than they ever were working, and some business owners said they'd be hurting their employees by calling them back and didn't want to be put in the position of informing the state that employees who refused to return had turned down work.

Your argument can be made, but it's weaker. And you have to repurpose the unemployment bonus after the fact.