How the effect of losing unemployment benefits is harming lower-income Americans
By Angelique Courtney
After a high incline in the number of people contracting COVID-19, 7.7 million people in the U.S. have been laid off due to being non-essential workers. Twenty million people have filed for unemployment since May of 2020, which is 16% higher than the average amount of people filing for unemployment.
This is even becoming an issue for essential workers losing their jobs too. In many cases, essential workers have picked up second jobs to try and fulfill the income they need with the economy drastically changing. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez a New York Congresswoman has further discussed this topic and how it has affected many people’s lives. AOC even defended a medic, who was receiving public backlash for having an OnlyFans account, in a tweet: “Leave her alone. The actual scandalous headline here is “Medics in the United States need two jobs to survive.
The only federal income that has been given to people since the start of the pandemic is a total of $1,800 which is an amount that cannot even pay people’s bills for one month. Within America, the average price of a one-bedroom apartment is between $1,200 to $1,500. This has resulted in a rise in evictions, due to the loss of jobs in response to the crashing economy.
Roughly 46% of American adults have stated that they are having a hard time paying bills at all. The new debate over the next COVID-19 package has a big shift.
Congress continues to debate on an additional relief plan, as the two parties are unable to decide on a number. Democrats want to give $1.9 trillion and Republicans want to give $600 billion. To try and pass the new relief plan Democrats want to pass this through reconciliation. This would be the best solution for Democrats because they do control the House, the Senate, and The White House now.
The rescue plan, would send people an additional $1,400. Unemployment would increase from $300 to $400. Along with $25 billion to help those who are in need of rental assistance. This bill could be passed as soon as March. This plan is not what people thought it would be, but Democrats believe this is an improvement from the original plan.
An issue with this plan is the minimum wage increase to $15 is not likely to increase in the plan. This is due to the minimum wage nationally being $7.25 an hour alongside, Colorado’s minimum wage being $11.10. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been very vocal about this issue. Sanders feels this is crucial in the reconstruction plan because Sanders believes with the growing cost of living Americans wages need to increase, Sanders would go on to say, “Anyone who works 40 hours a week in the United States of America, should not be living in abject poverty. It is a moral disgrace that Congress hasn’t increased the minimum wage since 1997”. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would benefit over 32 million people.
Overall, the topic of what the direct payments will be from the new COVID-19 relief plan must include higher payments for the plan to be effective. If this bill is not passed more than 11.4 million people will lose their COVID-19 benefits if the plan is not passed. Today, over 700,000 people continue to apply for unemployment every week.
