The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling for an end to the
$300 a week supplemental unemployment benefit.
This comes after a jobs report released Friday showed a
slight increase in unemployment numbers in April.
The Chamber of Commerce says a big reason why some people
are choosing to stay at home and collect unemployment rather than find a job is
because, in many cases, people make more money with the $300 unemployment bump
than they would working a job.
State Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) says New York should
consider getting rid of the supplement benefits.
“I think New York should join those states in opting out of
the additional federal benefit,” he says. “The bottom line is people are making
as much, if not more, staying home than they will be going to work.
Unemployment insurance is supposed to be for a temporary situation when someone
is out of work and cannot find a job. Well, there are more and more jobs
opening up and the business owners can’t find the workers and that is
completely upsetting the system.”
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, about one of four
recipients of unemployment collect more money from benefits than they did when
they worked.