Jandos Rothstein
Workers around the U.S. fear what will happen to them when the CARES Act’s Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which provides laid-off and furloughed workers with an extra $600 per week in addition to state unemployment benefits, expires on July 26, the last payable week under the act.
“The CARES Act $600 benefit is my family’s lifesaver. I would have been homeless and lost my car without it,” said Cindy Gentile from the Tampa, Florida, area, who lost both her jobs as a brand ambassador and a substitute teacher due to the pandemic. Her two children also lost their jobs in the hospitality industry, and they have no certainty they will have jobs to return to when their industries begin to recover. “We’ve applied for other work with no response,” Gentile said. Florida’s maximum unemployment benefit without the CARES Act enhancement is just $275 per week.
Tanya Howell of Dry Ridge, Kentucky, has relied on the CARES Act benefit after getting laid off from her job as an accounting clerk at a transportation company. Her employer has not given her a return date to work yet. Because she was only employed a few months prior to the pandemic due to an injury from a car accident, Howell only made enough money to qualify for $176 in weekly state unemployment benefits.
“When the CARES Act ends, I will draw $176 a week. No one can live on that, and the chances that I will find a job making what I was is slim,” said Howell, who made around $700 a week before the pandemic.
According to an analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, 10.7 percent of the U.S. workforce has been permanently laid off from their jobs prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of other workers may still return to their jobs but remain furloughed, as several industries still continue to be shut down or are operating at reduced capacity. Depending on the state workers live in, those still relying on unemployment will experience a cut in benefits ranging from 50 to 85 percent.
“With the virus still not under control and more states reinstating COVID-related restrictions on many sectors of the economy, health and economic conditions are still far too volatile to end this supplement,” said George Wentworth, senior counsel with the National Employment Law Project. He explained that the national unemployment rate remains higher than in any prior recession since the Great Depression, and state unemployment benefits are woefully inadequate to support workers and their families. “Now is not the time to pull the rug out from under workers who are not able to return to work because of the damage done by the pandemic.”
Failure to extend the CARES Act unemployment benefits could cost 5.1 million jobs in the U.S., according to EPI. Around 24.5 million Americans still remain officially unemployed or out of work due to the coronavirus and rely on those benefits for income. If they have less to spend, that could roll back purchases throughout the country and further depress an already reeling economy.
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Republicans in the Senate have argued against extending the benefits, claiming they de-incentivize people returning to work. They have suggested reducing the benefit or converting it into a “signing bonus” to encourage workers back onto the job.
“The CARES Act expiration is a disaster waiting to happen. The combination of the eviction moratorium ending, the end of unemployment insurance, and the lack of any infrastructure to properly test and treat people means many people will be forced out of their homes and back to work, if not both,” said Graham Carlson, who worked as a deckhand on passenger ferries in the San Francisco area. “This will greatly exacerbate the risk of infection for millions of people like me who cannot afford to go without work.”
As passenger counts on Bay Area ferries remain a fraction of what they were prior to the pandemic, Carlson and other workers remain out of work, with no idea when or if they will be recalled.
“I get the maximum California allows, $450, plus the $600 federal benefit, which is within $100 of what I would get if I was working again. When the federal benefit ends on July 31, I’ll only be making $450. It’s going to be hard to make it on that,” said Harvey Stafford, another deckhand on passenger ferries in the San Francisco area, who was laid off on March 17.
Melaku Yosef, a wheelchair attendant for over six years at airline contractor Eulen America in Washington, D.C., was terminated due to the pandemic rather than furloughed and is expected to reapply for his job. If rehired, Yosef will have to pay for fees to acquire a new airport security clearance badge and lose seniority.
“The extra $600 from the CARES Act for unemployment ends July 31, and I don’t know how I’m going to support my family,” said Yosef. “Eulen doesn’t care about their workers. They’ve previously cut my hours for union activity and now they terminated us and are making us reapply for our jobs. All they care about is making money.”
Eulen America declined to comment.
Cheryl Sennett, a tour director for 12 years in southwest Florida who led groups to domestic and international travel locations, explained that her job likely isn’t returning until a vaccine is developed.
“I’m very concerned about the CARES Act benefit expiring as I won’t be able to survive on Florida’s low unemployment. I made more money working, but at least the extra money pays the bills,” said Sennett, who is 64 years old. She is currently applying for other jobs and taking a course in contact tracing, with the hope she can find work doing that from home.
“I’m about to lose my home due to nonpayment of rent,” said John Swanson, a heavy mechanic at a lumber supplier outside of Detroit, who was laid off in March 2020 and won’t be able to return to work until 2021, due to contracts his employer lost until then. He’s relied on the CARES Act benefits, but is still having issues with Michigan’s unemployment system paying out benefits on a regular basis. “I won’t be able to last much longer with this going on. Nowhere is hiring with pay I’m used to.”
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