Political Wire picked up a WaPo story and gave it this title: Red States Now Paying Workers to Not Get Vaccinated. That’s a more succinct description than WaPo’s own headline: 5 GOP-led states extend unemployment aid to workers who lose jobs over vaccine mandates.
At least five Republican-led states have extended unemployment benefits to people who’ve lost jobs over vaccine mandates — and a smattering of others may soon follow.
Workers who quit or are fired for cause — including for defying company policy — are generally ineligible for jobless benefits. But Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee have carved out exceptions for those who won’t submit to the multi-shot coronavirus vaccine regimens that many companies now require. Similar ideas have been floated in Wyoming, Wisconsin and Missouri.
The full story is actually somewhat more complicated than PW’s pithy summary. The democratic governor of Kansas signed the eligibility law the Republican-controlled legislature passed. A lot of businesses are opposed to granting this exemption because they have to shoulder the costs.
“Allowing unemployment benefits as the proposed legislation recommends could cause significant financial harm to the state’s [unemployment insurance] trust fund, negatively impact its solvency, and lead to increased taxes on the Kansas businesses who are struggling to recover from the pandemic,” Kansas Chamber of Commerce President Alan Cobb said in a statement.
On the other hand, some are saying that relatively few people will actually apply for unemployment benefits for this reason.
Surveys suggest relatively few people have left jobs because of company vaccine mandates; Kaiser’s poll shows 5 percent of unvaccinated adults fall into this category.
On the third hand,
“I don’t think their families, if they have children, should suffer because that breadwinner is refusing to be vaccinated,” [unemployment benefits expert Will] Raderman said. “To say [unvaccinated people] should also lose financial security in between jobs, that seems pretty extreme to me.”
And of course the vaccine-or-test requirement is still tied up in the courts. Still, this the now the optics: Republican-controlled states are so committed to letting their citizens stay unvaccinated that they will pay you if you get fired for refusing the jab.
No word on whether they will cover hospital and funeral costs.