Wisconsin Republicans: Wisconsin businesses are ‘competing against the couch’
(The Center Square) – The enhanced federal unemployment benefits in Wisconsin are worth an extra $300 a week, every week, until at least September. Republican lawmakers and business owners in the state say they simply can’t compete with that.
“We’re no longer competing with other employers, we’re no longer competing with Illinois, we’re no longer competing with Iowa, we’re competing with the couch,” Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said a local boss told him last week.
Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol on Tuesday introduced legislation to end the federal unemployment enhancers in the state. Those enhancers guarantee people an extra $300 a-week. Marklein says when you add that to the roughly $300 per week in Wisconsin benefits, you get more than $600 a week. That comes to over $16 an hour.
“This is not a problem where the [private sector] wages are not keeping-up,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester said Tuesday.
Business owners in the state joined Vos and Marklein Tuesday to make the same point.
Klondike Cheese owner Ron Buholzer said he has 34 open jobs right now, and can’t find the people to fill them.
“We just raised our starting wage, across the board, from $14 to $16. Because when we went to $14 we weren’t getting any applicants,” Buholzer said. “$16 has helped a little. But there aren’t very many applicants.
Will Flanders with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty said they’ve crunched the numbers, and figure that more than 10% of workers in Wisconsin have been de-incentivized to work because of the extra unemployment.
“By far the largest group are those that work in the restaurant industry, representing nearly 200,000 workers in the state,” Flanders said. “Overall, about 11% of all workers in the state work in jobs where unemployment increases disincentivize may work. Removing the extra $300 would put the average unemployment benefits well below the mean wages for all of these occupations.”
Vos said he plans to call the back-to-work legislation for a vote Wednesday.
Even if the proposal passes both the Assembly and Senate, it is likely doomed.
Gov. Evers has not said what he will do with the Republican plan, but Evers has been a supporter of the expanded benefits since they were signed into law earlier this year.
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