Alabama Department of Labor overpaid unemployment recipients by more than $164 million in 2020-21

  According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Alabama overpaid unemployment compensation benefit recipients by more than $164 million in 2020 and 2021. Now the Alabama Department of Labor wants some of that money back, sending bills, sometimes as high as $20,000, to citizens. Governor Kay Ivey disagrees, implying that the state should absorb the loss and move on. 

  Regardless of what you think should be done in this case, shouldn’t we expect better stewardship of our taxpayer dollars?

Quitting your job or thinking about joining the ‘great resignation’? Here’s what an employment lawyer advises

  Record numbers of Americans have quit their jobs in recent months, with more than 4.4 million submitting their resignation in September alone. Millions more may be preparing to follow them to the exits – one survey found that around a third of workers wanted to make a career change.

  But one of the things I learned over the years as a lawyer and later as a professor specializing in employment law is that timing and preparation matter when it comes to quitting a job. So even if you have another job lined up, it’s worth considering a few factors that might influence whether you quit now or stay in your current role for a few weeks – or months.

Alabama CARES Act funding feeds government, not its people

  In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the United States, impacting the lives of all Americans. In response, Congress passed a massive health and economic relief bill, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES).

  The CARES Act included $150 billion in direct aid to state and local governments. Money that was intended to help support state governments as they responded to the healthcare and financial hardships faced by citizens.

  Thus far, Alabama has missed the mark in using CARES funds to provide direct assistance to struggling Alabamians in an effective and timely manner, choosing instead to feed government and provide narrowly targeted aid to private organizations. With the CARES Act state spending deadline extended through 2021, the state should use the more than $270 million left to help its people, not further grow government.

It’s past time for Congress to extend financial relief as new COVID-19 cases spike

  As the country enters the winter with promising news of a COVID-19 vaccine on the horizon but cases spiking in the meantime, Congress must buy time for public health by passing financial support measures for households and businesses. A growing number of local and state officials—without the support of a national strategy—are taking action to reduce transmission by pausing indoor dining and other high-risk activities. Federal lawmakers must also prioritize financial supports for businesses, such as bars and restaurants, and households as part of their public health strategy in the lead-up to the distribution of a vaccine.

Building automatic and long-term economic relief during the coronavirus crisis

  The economic fallout from the coronavirus response has happened quickly, but its effects will be long-lasting. As Congress reconvenes to debate the next round of funding priorities, it must employ strategies that work in tandem to get economic relief to the wide range of people who need it: the millions who have lost jobs, small businesses that have been shuttered, states and cities facing budget shortfalls, and communities that are facing disproportionate health burdens. These policy approaches should be designed to provide significant support right away; effectively address the public health crisis; mitigate the economic harm to people; and begin to build towards an eventual equitable recovery.

The next recession will be harder than it needs to be. Here’s why.

  Recessions are hardest on those who can least afford it.

  Take the Great Recession, the economic plunge that followed the 2008 financial crisis. It cost those in the poorest 10 percent of Americans more than 20 percent of their incomes, which was more than twice the drop experienced by the richest 10 percent. It was black and Hispanic workers, as well as workers who didn’t have a college degree, who saw higher rates of unemployment and longer durations without a job than other workers.

  Overall, the recession exacerbated already existing inequalities in wealth and income, with black and Hispanic families, as well as women, falling further behind their white, male counterparts in terms of asset building.

  And the next recession could be even harder.

Sarah Ayres: Why Congress must extend emergency unemployment benefits

  Since 2008, federal lawmakers have provided extra weeks of unemployment benefits for Americans who want a job but cannot find one—a group that totals 11.3 million people today. Recognizing that unemployment rates have remained high since the start of the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, Congress has repeatedly enacted legislation to extend these benefits. Under the most recent extension, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, emergency unemployment benefits will expire at the end of 2013. But extending emergency unemployment benefits will prevent 3.1 million Americans from being cut off from benefits in the coming months and will lead to the creation of 310,000 additional jobs next year. Maintaining these benefits is the right thing to do for the U.S. economy and for the families who rely on unemployment insurance to pay their bills.