{"id":9812,"date":"2025-10-15T18:31:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/?p=9812"},"modified":"2025-10-15T18:31:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:31:47","slug":"what-states-can-do-to-fight-the-federal-attack-on-unemployment-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/2025\/10\/15\/what-states-can-do-to-fight-the-federal-attack-on-unemployment-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"What States Can Do To Fight The Federal Attack on Unemployment Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Economic Policy Institute has released a set of proposals that states can do to counter the recent attacks on worker rights and benefits. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epi.org\/publication\/unemployment-insurance-state-solutions-to-the-u-s-worker-rights-crisis\/\">Unemployment Insurance: State Solutions<\/a> provides the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Guarantee a minimum of 26 weeks of potential benefit duration:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.epi.org\/publication\/section-4-benefit-duration-expand-ui-benefit-duration-to-provide-longer-protection-during-normal-times-and-use-better-measures-of-labor-market-distress-to-automatically-extend-and-sustain-benefits-d\/#:~:text=Common%20criticisms%20of%20extended%20potential%20benefit%20durations\">An extensive body of research<\/a>\u00a0finds that longer UI benefits do not meaningfully discourage work and any resulting increase in unemployment duration is offset by improved job matching, as workers find jobs with higher pay or that better match their skills. Prior to the Great Recession, all states\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-15-281.pdf\">offered at least 26 weeks of potential benefit duration<\/a>\u00a0(PBD) to eligible workers. Policymakers should ensure UI programs guarantee a minimum of 26 weeks of PBD.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Raise benefit levels to afford workers a minimum standard of living:\u00a0<\/strong>Low benefit levels mean low-wage workers\u2014should they even qualify for benefits\u2014often receive benefits that are unlivable. As a stepping stone to more ambitious and meaningful benefit level increases, lawmakers should set\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epi.org\/publication\/section-5-benefit-levels-increase-ui-benefits-to-levels-working-families-can-survive-on\/\">minimum benefit levels<\/a>\u00a0that working families can survive on: a benefit amount of at least 30% of the state\u2019s average weekly wage or $300 per week (indexed to median wage growth), whichever is greater.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"769\" src=\"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/no-money-7197328_1280-1-1024x769.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9813\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/no-money-7197328_1280-1-1024x769.png 1024w, https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/no-money-7197328_1280-1-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/no-money-7197328_1280-1-768x577.png 768w, https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/no-money-7197328_1280-1.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Image by <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/mohamed_hassan-5229782\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=7197328\">Mohamed Hassan<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=7197328\">Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Economic Policy Institute has released a set of proposals that states can do to counter the recent attacks on worker rights and benefits. Unemployment Insurance: State Solutions provides the details. Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9814,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9812\/revisions\/9814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}