Handing out unemployment aid to people who refuse to get vaccinated is silly

Vaccinations have become such a politically charged issue in the United States that at least five red states are essentially paying people not to get vaccinated.

The five states — Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee — are granting people unemployment aid if they lose a job because they refuse to get vaccinated. This is not how unemployment compensation is supposed to work.

From a health perspective, vaccinations are the best protection from the coronavirus. Even former president Donald Trump has been urging people to get vaccinated because it significantly reduces the likelihood of severe illness, hospitalization and death. In a pandemic where more than 821,000 Americans have died, political leaders should be doing everything they can to urge people to get vaccinated, not rewarding them for opting out.

From an economic perspective, it is also bad policy to be giving aid to those who would rather be fired than get vaccinated. The fate of the U.S. economy hinges on getting the coronavirus under control. When cases spike, people stay home and don’t spend as much money, which hurts local businesses and vacation destinations.

Unemployment compensation is supposed to be for workers let go for no fault of their own, such as when a business downsizes during a recession or a factory closes in a town. If someone is fired for cause, they are not supposed to receive unemployment aid. By refusing to get vaccinated, these workers are violating company policy and being fired for cause. Even worse, they are endangering the lives of co-workers and customers.

It’s telling that business groups, including many state chambers of commerce, are against giving unemployment aid to people refusing to get vaccinated. They fear the policy will result in higher taxes on companies to pay for these benefits. The bulk of unemployment funding comes from taxes on businesses, though the federal government typically kicks in additional money during recessions.

While Americans have the right to refuse to get vaccinated, they must face the consequences of that decision. Already, there are countries the unvaccinated can’t travel to, and certain restaurants, gyms and performance venues in the United States that refuse entry to the unvaccinated.

The sudden unemployment policy change is especially comical given that four of these states — Arkansas, Florida, Iowa and Tennessee — went out of their way to cut off enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits early this past June and July. State Republican leaders at the time argued people needed to get back to work ASAP. Now they have had a change of heart for the unvaccinated.

All of this only reinforces the urgent need to reform America’s unemployment insurance system. The self-employed are no longer eligible for unemployment aid, even if their business collapses as COVID cases surge again and people stay home. Similarly, parents whose children’s day cares or schools close are no longer eligible for aid if they have to stop working temporarily. Surely if states are going to help those refusing to get vaccinated, these other deeply impacted groups deserve similar concern.

Giving unemployment aid to workers refusing to get vaccinated is a misguided policy by certain Republican governors and legislatures to win some partisan points. It’s not what’s best for the country — or the local workforce.