Gov. Evers Unemployment Benefits Still Necessary for Families

When Covid started shutting businesses down in March of 2020, it didn’t take long for Congress to pass unemployment legislation. This legislation allowed people to be paid $600 a week if they lost employment due to the pandemic. The amount was later reduced to $300 a week. But now, Wisconsin lawmakers want to get rid of these benefits entirely before the federal government has them set to expire in September. 

Governor Evers has been defending the federal unemployment payments, and I think he’s right to do so. There are still people who need the extra $300 a week to pay for necessities like rent, bills, and groceries.

The facts

Of those surveyed by the Pew Research Center in September of 2020, 25% of people said they or someone in their household was laid off due to the covid outbreak. And 15% were personally laid off. That’s a lot of people who lost their jobs. But it’s important to keep in mind this was nationwide. The survey didn’t specifically look into different states or regions of the United States.

We can look into those though. 

When taking a look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I narrowed down the results to Wisconsin only. I found that the unemployment rate rose from 3.2% in March of 2020, to a whopping 14.8% in April of 2020. That’s an extremely drastic change in such a short amount of time. However, when we consider that all these businesses were closing because of the pandemic, it makes sense. Upon a closer look at the statistics, we can see that the unemployment rate has steadily decreased. As of May 2021, it has fallen to 3.9%–barely above what the rate was before the pandemic started last year.

Because the rate has fallen back almost to what it was before covid started, this means that not as many people are claiming unemployment benefits as they were those first few months. Most people have been able to find some form of work whether it be online, at a gas station, in a grocery store, in an office, or something else entirely. 

The opposition

However, Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are arguing that the benefits need to end. They think cancelling the benefits will make more people available to fill vacancies in the summer work force. They seem to think masses are sitting around and collecting their checks so they don’t have to do any work. That simply isn’t the case.  Whether they want to believe it or not, people want to work.

If the unemployment rate before the pandemic was 3.2% and is now sitting at 3.9%, then only 0.7% of the people receiving the benefits are those who were working before the pandemic, but have since been laid off. It’s possible that those 0.7% are mothers who can’t find work and accommodations for their children. They could be students struggling to find a job that would allow them the time they need to study. They could be people who have covid. There are a dozen other reasonable excuses as to why they can’t work.

Now, I’m sure there are a handful of people who are sitting around and collecting checks because they think it’s easy money. These people are not the majority. There always will be that handful of people. However, it’s not right for the majority of people who are working hard to lose their benefits because a small handful of people aren’t.

Gov. Evers thoughts

So while republicans are convinced that this small percentage of people reentering the workforce will help businesses, Gov. Evers is not as certain. At the beginning of June he said, “I’d like to see proof that the people struggling on unemployment, that if they all came back to work suddenly this problem is solved. It’s an issue I’ve seen no data on, none whatsoever.” I think it’s safe to assume that he would reasonably consider the notion of ending the extra unemployment benefits if there was evidence it would be helpful. But as there’s no evidence, he doesn’t see the point in considering it yet. And neither do I.

It would be easy for Gov. Evers to cave to the demands of Wisconsin’s republican lawmakers, but it’s right for him not to do so considering the lack of evidence to support their claim. If he did sign the law ending the $300 weekly unemployment payments, thousands of families would struggle. They’d have a hard time making ends meet, paying their bills, and putting food on the table.