Senator Wyden: Americans Need Extended Unemployment Insurance
By Senator Ron Wyden
Federal data released last week show that 7.3 of the 18.3 million Americans currently receiving unemployment benefits are covered by the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
I negotiated this program in the CARES Act to cover workers not eligible for traditional jobless benefits like gig workers, part-time workers, and the self-employed.
The fact that nearly 40 percent of workers currently relying on jobless benefits to pay rent and buy groceries were ineligible for any help prior to the CARES Act highlights the urgent need for long-term reform of the program.
While extending the PUA program for the duration of this crisis is critical, America can’t simply return to the status quo where large swaths of the workforce are on their own in times of hardship.
Unemployment insurance was created in 1932, when no one could have envisioned how the nature of work would change over the next century.
The reason these workers were not covered until the CARES Act was because unemployment insurance has not been reformed in decades. In fact, after the Great Recession, many states restricted, rather than expanded, access to jobless benefits to hold down the cost of their programs.
From onerous eligibility requirements to impossible application systems, states set out to create a lifeline that snapped.
Prior to this crisis, only nine percent of jobless workers in North Carolina were able to access benefits. Even in New Jersey, which has the highest coverage rate, only fifty-eight percent of jobless workers were able to access benefits.
While my first priority is extending the weekly boost, additional weeks of benefits, and expanded eligibility for the duration of this crisis, there is an urgent need to reform the unemployment insurance system so it better supports workers, particularly workers of color, and meets the needs of the 21st century economy.
We cannot go on with a system that state Republican lawmakers have intentionally broken so that it fails many of the people who need it most when hard times hit.
My priorities for reform include increasing base benefits so that unemployed workers can cover essentials, ensuring all unemployed workers can get a benefit regardless of their work history, and improving technology and administration to minimize disparities among states.
The American people would strongly support reform along these lines. Data for Progress polling shows 59 percent of voters, including 54 percent of independents, support permanently covering gig workers. A plurality of Republicans also supported the policy, at 46 percent.
Importantly, strong support was consistent across other demographics as well: 68 percent of Black voters, 59 percent of white voters, 54 percent of Hispanic voters, 57 percent of voters without a college degree, and 62 percent of voters with a college degree.
The COVID crisis resulted in millions of Americans losing their jobs through no fault of their own and falling out of the middle-class into poverty. In the wake of this financial pain, there is strong support for reforming the country’s unemployment system so that it better supports jobless workers, and is better able to respond during times of economic crisis.
Senator Ron Wyden is the Democratic Chair of the Senate Finance Committee.