Generous unemployment benefits meant to help Americans who have been economically slammed by the coronavirus may instead persuade many of them to quit work altogether.
NPR reports that one coffee shop owner in Kentucky discovered that it made more sense for her employees to be getting unemployment checks from the government than to continue working for her, because they'd make more money.
"We basically have this situation where it would be a logical choice for a lot of people to be unemployed," she said
The business owner was determined to remain open during the coronavirus lockdowns, even switching to a curbside model to continue serving customers. But her employees discovered that "the best possible pay of their lives they could possibly get, [is] to be unemployed" right now.
As part of the federal government's coronavirus stimulus package, unemployed workers are given $600 on top of whatever their state pays in unemployment.
