Author Topic: Why Work? Wyoming Unemployed Family Can Make $80,000 In Benefits, Health Subsidies  (Read 236 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Cowboy State Daily By Kevin Killough 12/22/2022

Help wanted signs have cluttered the windows of many businesses across Wyoming and the United States for months. Businesses want to hire people, but there aren’t enough applicants to fill available positions.

It’s a strange economy where people have money to spend, but businesses don’t have enough people wanting to work and earn the money they spend.

A new study by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a free market advocacy group, suggests that excessive unemployment benefits may be one contributing factor.

Fewer Working

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the U.S. workforce participation rate was at 62.1% in November. This was a bit lower from where it was prior to February 2020 and the pandemic caused unemployment rates to skyrocket.

There are 5.6 million people in this country who can work but haven’t actively looked for work in the past four weeks or were unavailable to take a job, the agency reports.

Unemployment Pays

Casey Mulligan, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, and EJ Antoni, research fellow for regional economics at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, produced a study that found that in 24 states, Wyoming included, unemployment benefits and Affordable Care Act subsidies for a family of four with both parents not working are the equivalent of at least the national median household income.

In Wyoming, the study says the earned income equivalent for a family with both parents not working and two dependents, including unemployment and ACA benefits, was $79,294 last year.

Wyoming ranks 14th among all states, with Washington having the highest at $122,653. Mississippi’s combined benefits for the same size family was the lowest at $37,486.

More: https://cowboystatedaily.com/2022/12/22/why-work-wyoming-unemployed-family-can-make-80000-in-benefits-health-subsidies/