You’ve probably heard this talking point: Many of the 30 million Americans who received the extra $600-per-week unemployment benefits passed in the first coronavirus economic stimulus package earned more than they did when they worked full time.
The original CARES act represented a near-unprecedented, if temporary, expansion of the social safety net. According to one estimate by University of Chicago economists in May, as many as 68 percent of newly unemployed workers were on track to collect a higher salary under the enhanced benefits (that is, if they were able to actually get through to swamped unemployment offices to apply). But while some lawmakers have tried to use this phenomenon as a reason to slash the extra benefits — insisting, against all evidence, that it’s convincing people not to return to work at all — the fact that so many workers outearned their salaries on $600 per week (averaging $15 an hour for a 40-hour workweek) only highlights the failures of the American labor system.