Many states are joining Arkansas in calling an early end (by 10 weeks in our case) to the $300/weekly federal unemployment benefit for those covered by state and other federal programs.
But no state that I can find has been MORE punitive than Arkansas.
Governor Hutchinson ordered an end to the $300 weekly benefit; he ordered an end to the program that extended coverage after regular state benefits ran out (a nation-leader for brevity at 16 weeks); he ordered an end to the added payment for gig workers; he ordered an end to payments to a handful of people who qualified for benefits under both regular and gig unemployment benefits. The clean sweep means Arkansas will give up some $280 million in economic stimulus that 64,000 people otherwise would have pumped into stores, restaurants, rent and other necessities of life.
There are other ways to get people back to work. Even Montana offered a bonus for those successfully returning to work.
Look today at Arizona, also led by a Republican governor, Doug Ducey. He is continuing the federal program that extends the standard state benefit and also will allow gig workers to continue to qualify for unemployment pay based on reported income, but not receive the added $300.
There’s also this in Arizona, a return-to-work incentive, which Hutchinson proudly said he had rejected:
He is also throwing in a sweetener for people who decide to return to work: A $2,000 bonus paid to workers who get and keep a full-time job for at least 10 weeks. Part-time workers will get $1,000.
Ducey is allocating $300 million in federal relief cash on a first come-first served basis to pay for the bonuses. A worker who gets a job earning more than $25 an hour does not qualify.
Arkansas has plenty of federal money to do this, too, not to mention a billion-dollar surplus that Hutchinson is hungering to return to millionaires through an income tax cut.
In Arkansas, we favor the stick over the carrot. And we start early. We are one of only 19 states that still allow corporal punishment in school and we trail only Alabama in how often children are paddled. The philosophy never gets old.