Keeping Low-Wage Workers From Slipping Into Poverty
Posted by Sharon Grosfeld on November 7, 2007 at 11:39 AM
As the gap in wages and benefits grows wider between lower, middle and upper income ranges, minimum wage workers are particularly threatened by the prospect of falling into severe poverty and homelessness if they were to become unemployed. Millions of workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own are ineligible for unemployment insurance due to serious problems and inequities in the system. Last year, fewer than half of the people who lost their jobs were able to receive unemployment compensation.
For people at the lowest ends of the payscale, lacking this safety-net can mean losing the roof over their heads and the ability to provide food for themselves or their families. These workers are struggling to make ends meet while they are employed in low wage jobs and fighting for their survival when they become unemployed.
Unemployment insurance is an absolute necessity for low wage workers who lose their jobs and S. 1871, the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) is intended to assist unemployed people who should be eligible for support but currently are not.
Though some states have been a little more generous to unemployed individuals with respect to the compensation paid, federal incentives are needed for states to provide benefits that will keep people from becoming impoverished as a result of losing their jobs. S. 1871 provides solid financial incentives to states that improve their unemployment insurance programs so that more workers are covered and more services to assist the unemployed are provided.
For instance, if a victim of domestic violence is compelled to leave her job and move to another location in order to find a safe haven, she does not qualify for unemployment insurance. S. 1871 helps victims by offering incentives for states to provide unemployment insurance in these circumstances, as well as others detailed in the legislation.
Passage of this bill will have a profound impact upon the lives of millions of unemployed people. Congress should pass S. 1871 quickly, the President should sign it into law and the states should take advantage of the incentives provided in the legislation. Anything less is inexcusable.
