The COVID Thread

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My sister is a social worker for the state of Texas. Her main job is to determine welfare benefits for folks that need it ( just for context).

anyway, she was telling me that with the current unemployment benefits folks are making way more money than a lot of folks deemed essential employees who are on minimum wage.
To give you an idea. Minimum wage workers make $7.25 in Texas. So FTE working 30 hours a week = $218 a week ( note - most employers do not allow minimum wage employees (MWE) to work more than 30 hours so they don’t qualify for other benefits like health insurance) but even if they allowed the MWE work 40 hours it would equal to $290 per week and $1,160 per month. A lot of employees that are considered “essential” fall under this category.
With the current unemployment benefits currently in place due to COVID unemployment benefits can reach up to 800 per week. That equals to $20 per hour if that employee works 40 hours a week.
so now a lot of these people are making three times as much money to not work than they did while working and making three times as much as people having to work because they are considered “essential”.
By the way the $800 is not just money. Most of the time it is a combination of food stamps and money just to clarify.

Anyway, I found the conversation interesting and thought I would share here.
 
I've read/heard similar accounts from other people.

Does it say that our minimum wage is far too low to actually live off of, or that the COVID stimulus is too high? The lost income due to job loss will last far longer than the COVID stimulus does.
 
"No business which depends for its existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level--I mean the wages of decent living."

By that rationale, there are a s*** ton of companies that don't have a right to continue. But hey, that's just FDR, what the heck did he know about anything?
 
Convo with a part time college student friend of mine in VA who works at a BBQ joint where they pay everybody $11-$14 per hour, plus tip share. He was working 24-30 hours a week, more on occasion. Lives with his parents.

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Minimum wage is not livable wage.
Convo with a part time college student friend of mine in VA who works at a BBQ joint where they pay everybody $11-$14 per hour, plus tip share. He was working 24-30 hours a week, more on occasion. Lives with his parents.

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He's getting $100 from the state, and $600 from federal.

Nice to see a restaurant paying appropriately, though. I hope he has his job to return to.
 
Convo with a part time college student friend of mine in VA who works at a BBQ joint where they pay everybody $11-$14 per hour, plus tip share. He was working 24-30 hours a week, more on occasion. Lives with his parents.

View attachment 2284263

Yes, you have to report any unemployment compensation you receive on your federal tax return and potentially your state return as well. The money will ultimately be included in your gross income and taxed at your ordinary income rate.

 
The maximum per week in UI in NC = $350 for those of us in that position.

You can imagine those of us that worked 50+ hours a week on average were panicking when we we received our numbers - we would be screwed without federal.

The way in which essential workers are being exploited is despicable. They deserve that much more.
 
I know of a couple people that are making more now not working then when working. One was offered his job back after his employer received a PPP loan and said screw that...he’d rather just hang out and do nothing for more.

Not sure what that says about the person, these new benefits or the original job pay...but there is something not right somewhere in there.
 
Minimum wage here is $12, will be 13.50 next year and $15 at some point down the line. Its already $15 in the Seattle metro area.
I know nobody that is making more on unemployment than they were but I'm sure it does happen. But I don't care as much about that as some millionaires getting richer off of the tax breaks and loopholes in the stimulus.

I'm not sure what I'd make on unemployment since I'm commission based.
 
Minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour in NC. 🥳
 
I know of a couple people that are making more now not working then when working. One was offered his job back after his employer received a PPP loan and said screw that...he’d rather just hang out and do nothing for more.

Not sure what that says about the person, these new benefits or the original job pay...but there is something not right somewhere in there.

this is what started our conversation. My sister was telling me that most if not all the folks that she deals with are currently making more money not working. She feels bad because they are making more than a lot of folks that are still working.
 
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