Bentz: Federal jobless money hurts employment
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, May 18th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ontario) believes the $300 weekly unemployment bonus the federal government is providing is hurting businesses more than helping them.
“I’ve heard many, many stories from many different employers saying that people show up for maybe one day of work and then suddenly disappear and go back and explain that they reached out and they didn’t like the job, and now they’re unemployed again,” he said.
Bentz said he fully supports help for those who legitimately need to be unemployed due to childcare or other difficulties imposed by the pandemic, but he doesn’t like what he’s hearing from business owners about people simply choosing to remain unemployed with the bigger checks that are coming.
“Those kinds of things should not be happening,” he said. “We should not be competing against the government for folks to work. The hourly rates that I’ve heard talked about are high, and yet people are not showing up to work.”
Meanwhile, at least 18 states led by the Republican Party have told the federal government to hold onto its supplemental unemployment benefits, which are not slated to expire until Sept. 6. One of those is Idaho, where starting June 19 unemployment checks will be about $300 less.
Western states dropping out of the program also include North and South Dakota, Montana, Alaska, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming.
