government has shown itself to be quite capable of swiftly enacting longer-lasting and expensive policy changes, so it’s frustrating that it’s so tough to establish simple economic and health protections against a deadly virus in a way that doesn’t require a bitter new debate every few months. The benefit, which Biden sought to expand, required employers to pay for up to two weeks of COVID-related leave. And even though the pandemic is still killing thousands every day, Congress didn’t move to reauthorize mandatory paid sick leave, which lapsed late last year. The rescue plan also doesn’t do much to help undocumented workers, who make up such a huge part of the hospitality industry.įinally, many of the act’s boldest provisions, like the advance payments on child tax credits, expire this year. Hospitality staffers around the country, incidentally, won’t get raises when they return to the workforce because the effort to hike the minimum wage to $15 sputtered. This individual would also receive $318 per week in state unemployment aid and thousands more from the Earned Income Tax Credit. Total: $10,800 from stimulus and tax credits, plus another $7,500 from 25-weeks of enhanced unemployment aid. Half of that amount will be paid out periodically from late July through December the rest will come as a check with next year’s taxes.Įnhanced unemployment: If the parent becomes unemployed in March, they’ll be eligible for $300 in aid every week through the last week of August. Let’s assume the parent of two is a cook who earns $33,140, the New York City median wage for that job.Ĭhild tax credit: $3,600 (5-year-old) + $3,000 (9-year-old) = $6,600. How a single parent could benefit from Biden’s stimulus As a result, many out-of-work restaurant staffers in New York will continue to collect little more than the minimum wage, even after adding federal aid onto state unemployment assistance. Enhanced jobless aid will remain at $300 per week, instead of shooting up to $400, due to opposition from Sen. That means a few more progressively minded initiatives fell by the wayside. The tougher news is that the bill, which received no Republican votes, was a compromise effort among a slim Democratic majority in the Senate. And gig workers like food delivery couriers - who don’t normally qualify for state unemployment aid - will see their benefits extended through the summer’s end. Congress also authorized over $22 billion more in housing assistance, and anyone who’s been laid off during the pandemic will now find that they shouldn’t have to pay anything to keep their employer-sponsored health insurance. The bill also temporarily boosts the child tax credit to up to $3,600 per dependent, which will be paid out in advance installments as a universal basic income of sorts. For cash-strapped workers and their families, stimulus payments will go out to the tune of $1,400 per person. A key part of the bill, modeled after the so-called RESTAURANTS proposal, allocates $28.6 billion to assist restaurants, food trucks, bars, and street vendors in paying their back rent, mortgages, and pretty much anything else. The law could also help extricate over 16 million people from impoverishment, according to the Urban Institute, offering them thousands more in aid dollars than previous stimulus bills. The American Rescue Plan, as it’s known, is the first package of its kind to truly target restaurants, helping food service establishments around the country avoid closure through billions in grants. President Joe Biden, accordingly, signed into law today the third COVID-19 stimulus package - this one coming in at $1.9 trillion - to help some of the people and institutions hit hardest by the virus. As the pandemic drags on into its second year - and as cases plateau in New York, Texas, New Jersey, and elsewhere - millions of hospitality workers remain jobless, over 110,000 food service establishments have reportedly closed, and millions of people, particularly Black folks, have been pushed past the brink of poverty.
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