Payroll tax cuts or a form of holiday or deferral to give Americans an incentive to return to work are options worth following, but continuing the $600 a week additional unemployment benefit for people who are out of work through the coronavirus pandemic is a benefit that is no longer needed while businesses are reopening, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said Tuesday.
"I'm also interested in a credit for employers that bring people off of unemployment," said Scalia on Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria." "I think that's worth being explored."
The priority, he added, is simply getting people back to work and sustaining the strong job growth that's been seen in the past few months.
"With respect to the $600 a week benefit, that was something extraordinary that was done back in March," said Scalia. "It was important when we were closing our economy to provide a substantial benefit. We had workers across the country being told you can't go to work, it's not allowed right now. We're in a different place."
But for nearly 70% of the people on unemployment, the bonus meant they were making more money by staying home, and now, "we're in a different place," said Scalia. "I don't see $600 as continuing, or really being the right place to start the discussion."
However, the administration does recognize that there are many Americans who remain out of work and do need support.
"We want to bring them back to work," he said. "We want to get our schools open, by the way, to help get people back to work, but we do want to continue to look at ways to support that unemployment insurance system, too."
Meanwhile, in May and June, a combined 7.5 million jobs was added, which was "much better" than many projections, said Scalia.
"As we consider targeting benefits, I do think it makes sense to look at industries that may have a long road to come back," Scalia also said. "We know that restaurants will probably in the next few months still have challenges but by the way, we also know that those are workers who typically don't earn as much as some other workers."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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