New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Lamont aims to ‘use every tool’
Low-wage workers will receive retroactive unemployment benefits
About 38,000 low-wage Connecticut workers who were ineligible for supplemental federal unemployment benefits over the summer will make about $ 1,800 in retroactive pay under a new executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont.
It will cost the state $ 7.5 million to leverage $55 million in federal pandemic support, giving those who made less than $100 a week in benefits up to $300 a week for July, August and September. Lamont said it’s worth it to provide extra pay during the upcoming holidays.
“This is a really complicated time for people,” Lamont said Friday of the expansion of the federal Lost Wages Assistance program. The coronavirus pandemic has led to more than 1 million claims for unemployment benefits in the state since March.
“This pandemic is wreaking havoc with our health,” Lamont said. “It’s also wreaking havoc with a lot of family budgets and small business, and we’ve got to use every tool in the tool kit as we try to maximize support for working families in this state, as we continue to wait for the federal government to figure out what they’re going to do.”
The governor described the average newly eligible workers as single parents who may be working two or three jobs and getting paid around the minimum wage.
“Maybe at the fast food, maybe at the restaurant, maybe home health care,” Lamont said. “If she loses one or two of those extra jobs, she’s now down to less than $100 a week, and she was frozen out of any unemployment support. And that was wrong.”
State Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby, appearing with Lamont during a virtual news conference from the state Capitol, said that eligibility is limited to those who made less than $100 a week in benefits between the last week in July until the first week in September.
About 160,000 state residents had been able to access $327 million in Lost Wages Assistance pandemic disaster benefits over the six weeks between July 26 and Sept. but low-wage workers were essentially shut out. “In order to qualify, unemployed workers had to have a minimum benefit 5, of at least $100 per week,” Westby said, noting those making $100 or more were eligible for the additional $300 a week from the federal government. The minimum wage is $ 12 an hour.
The department will use the state’s Unemployment Trust Fund to increase the weekly benefit for the 38,000 workers to $100 a week, making them retroactively eligible for the payments. “This is a temporary increase that covers only the six weeks that the original program ran, but it is an important increase that allows those claimants to bring in, potential, up to another $1,800 each,” Westby said.
“It’s good news for our residents,” Westby said. “It’s good for our economy. It bolsters economic activity.”
But those who earned more than $100 a week in unemployment since September are not eligible for the new program.
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that total non-farm payroll employment rose by 245,000 in November, while the national unemployment rate fell to percent, reflecting the continued recovery of economic activity. The speed of improvement has slowed, however, and analysts warn that with COVID-19 surging in many sectors of the country and no deal in sight in Washington for more pandemic stimulus, the economy may suffer more.
“Today’s jobs report added fewer jobs than expected even as the unemployment rate ticked down. The jobs numbers continue to show the resilience of U.S. employers in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, but vaccines cannot be distributed soon enough with the pandemic worsening as we close out the year,” said Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens Bank. “Today’s report and new restrictions enacted in many states to curb the spread of the virus may increase pressure to enact stimulus legislation that will ease some of the economic toll.” 6.7