ON THE BACKS OF THE BATTERED

The announcement came a couple of months ago and, ever since, it has increasingly become less of a warning and more and more a reality. The rumblings of this reality had been going on a for a while and, if nothing else, it has been picking up steam. Championed by business, politicians, pundits and more than a few academics, the message was stark:

It's time to recapture and rush back to normal.

But returning to or recapturing some sense of pre-pandemic normality, is nothing more than a pipe dream unless people jump back into the labor market. The problem, according to the reigning narrative, is that there aren't a flock of folk jumping back in and scooping up the jobs on offer, particularly in the service industry. They're choosing, we're told, to be voluntarily unemployed rather than punching that clock on the regular. Or, to put it in more academic lingo, their "reservation wage"-- the lowest wage at which they're willing to accept a gig-- is "too high." What we've got to do, so we're told, is to get these alleged recalcitrant to lower that "reservation wage," to stop them from being so "picky," to raise the price and the pain of choosing "leisure over work" and thereby "induce" them to grab what the market is offering. In short, we need public policies that'll get their minds right.

GETTING THEIR HEADS STRAIGHT

What kind of public policies? Policies that knock down the stuff that, according to some, is propping up worker's reservation wage. Policies that'll strip workers of their alleged snootiness toward the jobs that are currently available, and the wages attached them. Policies that'll will make them incur a high cost for getting their minds right and in alignment with the market. Policies that'll make them cut short their job shopping and return their labor power to the businesses carping about a severe labor shortage. If people "choose" to be jobless, then one of the jobs of public policy is to make sure that the state does not subsidize that choice.

So, right now, here's how all of this is playing out: As of today, at least 25 states have committed to pulverizing pandemic -related unemployment assistance. This includes (1) the Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (PUC) program that provides an additional $300 per week top off on the regular payments that are being made to the jobless; (2) the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA) geared to gig workers and others who might not qualify for regular unemployment insurance payments (UI) and (3) the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) that targets the long-term unemployed. These programs are fully federally funded, do not cost the states a nickel, and were scheduled to expire September 2021. But convinced that these programs were propping up worker's reservation wage and seducing them to be snooty, Governors in at least half of the states have made the decision to opt out early. All in the name, of course, of recapturing and rushing back to normal.

Prodding folk to get their mind right.

WHO'S GOING TO CATCH THE COST?

The fall out of all of this will fall disproportionately on the shoulders of the very groups that got slammed big time by the economic carnage unleashed by the pandemic. While all workers receiving some form of pandemic unemployment assistance will be significantly touched by the elimination of these programs, Black, Brown, LatinX, and Indigenous peoples are going to take a serious hit. As a recent report notes:

"Although states do not report demographic information on recipients of PEUC and PUA, over 46 percent of unemployment insurance (UI) in the states ending the programs early are people of color, and we can reasonably assume that they also make up a disproportionate share of those receiving pandemic unemployment benefits."

Of the 25 or states that are hell-bent on shutting down the flow of federal pandemic funds to the jobless, close to 50% of UI recipients are either Black, LatinX, Indigenous, or other people of color. What's more, a number of these states exceed that 50% mark.

Take Texas, the most recent state to slam the brakes on pandemic-related unemployment assistance. According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), almost 60% of Texas UI recipients are Black, LatinX, Indigenous, and other people of color. And the situation is even more dire in the state of Louisiana, with an estimated 66% of UI recipients falling into that category dubbed by some as "BIPOC." No matter how you cut it, such high percentages indicate that the elimination of the pandemic specific forms of unemployment assistance is bound to fall heavily on the backs of the very persons and communities that got creamed by COVID.

There's a lot at stake here. Don't think so? Well, imagine this: If all the states with Republican governors opted out of the pandemic employment assistance programs, we'd be looking at close to 5 million workers being impacted, and if every single state did likewise--well, now you're talking about 16 million folk having their benefits at risk of being cut.

Not exactly peanuts.

REBUILDING ON BATTERED BACKS

If all this harping about ending pandemic-related unemployment assistance tells us anything, it ought to be that the road "back to normal" is paved with callousness toward the very people and communities who bore the brunt of economic catastrophe unleased by COVID. It ought to tell us that this road follows a route that prioritizes profits over people and sacrifices the economic security of the least of these to the thirsty god of GDP. It ought to tell us that we desperately need to imagine and build an economy that respects and protects the dignity of labor.

The last thing we need to do is to build a bridge back to normal. Especially when that bridge is built on the backs of the battered.

Catch you on the flip side,

Doc Greene