Wisconsin’s largest business group wants end to extra unemployment

(The Center Square) – Someone on unemployment in Wisconsin can, for now, make almost $35,000 a year without lifting a finger. The state’s largest business group says no one in Wisconsin can afford that.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce on Tuesday called on Gov. Tony Evers to end the federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit program.

“We cannot afford to allow able-bodied workers to remain on the sidelines while thousands of jobs are available today,” WMC’s Kurt Bauer wrote in a letter to the governor.

Bauer said Wisconsin has about 100,000 open jobs, but not nearly enough people to fill them.

“The inability of employers to find workers has reached a crisis level in Wisconsin,” Bauer’s letter states. This threatens the viability of thousands of businesses and the jobs they provide for workers. If immediate action is not taken, there is a great likelihood long-term, irreversible damage will be done to Wisconsin’s economy.”

Wisconsin is offering a $300 federal unemployment enhancement, in addition to state benefits. Bauer said that comes to as much as $670 a week. That breaks down to $16.75 an hour, or just under $35,000 a year. The enhanced benefits are set to run until at least September.

“Business leaders tell us every single day that this expanded unemployment benefit is creating a strong disincentive to work and making it harder for them to hire,” Bauer wrote the governor.

Bauer said Wisconsin needs to transition back to less generous unemployment benefits “as soon as possible.”

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