South Carolina plans to stop some of its federally-funded unemployment benefits to address "ongoing workforce shortages," according to the South Carolina governor's office, leaving many out-of-work residents without any support at all.
The state joins Montana, which announced a similar move this week.
"This labor shortage is being created in large part by the supplemental unemployment payments that the federal government provides claimants on top of their state unemployment benefits," Gov. Henry McMaster said in a statement on Thursday. "What was intended to be a short-term financial assistance for the vulnerable and displaced during the height of the pandemic has turned into a dangerous federal entitlement, incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace."
Starting June 30, jobless South Carolinians will lose the extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits but maintain their regular benefits. Contractors, gig workers, and others will also lose access to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, meaning those workers won’t get any benefits.
"Nearly every sector in our economy faces a labor shortage," Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said in a statement on Tuesday. "The vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good."
As a way to incentivize workers to return to work, Montana is offering a one-time return-to-work payment of $1,200, using money from the American Rescue Plan to fund the program. Only those who complete four weeks of work would receive the payment.
"Incentives matter," Gianforte said. "Our return-to-work bonus and the return to pre-pandemic unemployment programs will help get more Montanans back to work."
South Carolina hasn't announced a return-to-work incentive once the federal benefits are cut.
Anybody know how long this program is supposed to last in other states? It's kind of nice in my line of work, I'm basically being paid $300 to work less than 24 hours a week.
I did some calculations and found that I pretty much make the same amount of money at 18 hours of work as I make at 38 hours of work and that I make the most money each week by only working 23 hours. By working more than that, I disqualify myself for unemployment that week which then disqualifies me for the $300 payment. As a result, if you graphed my income per hours worked, you'd see a steadily rising line with a huge valley in the middle of it.