As the economy reopens after the coronavirus-inducted shutdown, some unemployed workers must answer one big question: Do I want to go back?
That has led to a debate in Washington about whether lawmakers should extend the $600-a-week federal unemployment insurance payment that expires July 31.
The House Democrats’ $3 trillion stimulus bill would extend the payments into January, but President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have refused to go along.
The reason? Thanks to that extra weekly payment, some workers are making more on unemployment than they earn on the job. The average restaurant worker in New Jersey, for example, earns $394 a week, according to ZipRecruiter.
“You can extend some assistance, but you don’t want to pay people more unemployed than they’d make working," U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Washington Post.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said the higher unemployment payments “act as a barrier to getting people back to work.”
His solution: Giving workers an additional two weeks of payments — $1,200 — if they return to their jobs.
“Without this crucial change, in some states nearly three out of four jobless are being paid more on unemployment than their previous wages at work," Brady said. “This makes it nearly impossible for local businesses to hire — which is unhealthy for workers, businesses, and America.”
Sara Culliane, director of Make the Road New Jersey, an immigrant advocacy group, said this highlights a big problem for workers: low wages.
“It’s a pretty sad state of affairs if our workforce can make more money on unemployment than going to back to work,” she said. “To get our economy going again, we need to make sure everybody’s able to pay their bills.”
However, employers can’t afford to raise salaries as they struggle to resume operations, said Eileen Kean, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
“Small businesses are on the brink of not opening,” Kean said.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage
No matter how much they’re earning, however, some workers may not want to return at all, concerned about bringing the virus home to themselves or their families.
Whether they can turn down an offer to return to work and still retain their unemployment insurance benefits will be decided on a case by case basis, according to employment lawyer Alex Lee.
New Jersey should make sure "workers can still qualify for unemployment insurance” even if they don’t feel safe returning to their jobs, said Brandon McKoy, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a progressive research group.
Congress is under pressure to act before the extra $600 federal payment runs out.
“There are going to be a lot of workers who are going to be hard hit by this,” said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. “Even by the summer, when that pandemic unemployment insurance ends, we need to be extending it to make sure that those families don’t see 50 percent pay cuts or more.”
Perhaps workers would feel safer returning to their jobs if they knew that their employers acted to protect them against the pandemic, and could be held liable if they didn’t, said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy for the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group, and a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor.
"If we don’t have workers feeling safe, if we don’t have consumers feeling safe, we’re not going to resume normal economic activity,” she said.
But businesses, with the support of congressional Republicans, have used the pandemic to push their long-sought goal of limiting lawsuits, saying they can’t afford to fight what they said would be frivolous litigation.
While Congress debates its next move, employees are returning to their jobs.
Marisol Lopez of Clifton, a restaurant kitchen worker, was called back to work, but only for a fraction of the hours and the pay she once had.
She said she was concerned enough about the coronavirus that she will shun the bus to reduce her chances of infection and start walking to work, but said she couldn’t afford to stay home.
“I can’t give myself the luxury of not going to work because I really need the work,” Lopez said through an interpreter. “I have two kids. I’m afraid I will have nothing to give to them. I know it’s difficult because of the pandemic, but I wish there was more done for workers.”
NJ Advance Media staff writer Karin Price Mueller contributed to this report.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.