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Unemployment Bonuses Damage

FGA Research Paper Shares Real Stories of How Unemployment Bonuses Damage Small Businesses Across America

Naples, FL — Today, the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) published a research paper that sheds light on how the current unemployment bonus is impacting the labor force and devastating small businesses by sharing firsthand accounts from business owners from Anchorage to Atlanta. A common theme: They can’t find workers, no matter how much they offer as incentives. 

While sharing how increased unemployment benefits are wreaking havoc across the country, the paper goes into detail about how programs such as these discourage individuals from returning to work and trap them in government dependency. By paying workers more to stay home than to return to work, these increased benefits have morphed unemployment into a welfare program that is causing a labor shortage and damaging families and small businesses. 

“The current unemployment boosts are part of a short-minded policy approach that has long-lasting consequences,” said Alli Fick, Senior Fellow at FGA. “By trapping Americans in the welfare system and creating difficult or exhausting situations for those who do show up for work, unemployment bonuses are damaging to our country. States need to recommit to policies that incentivize Americans to work and get our communities back on a sustainable path.”

More than half of states have opted out of the $300 unemployment bonus, and these states have seen decreases in their weekly unemployment reports. Congress should allow the expiration of the $300 bonus to protect small businesses and get Americans back to work.

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The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a non-profit, multi-state think tank that specializes in health care, welfare, work, and election reform. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.

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