The $600 weekly pandemic unemployment payments have single-handedly changed the economic equation in America as people earn more staying home than they did in the jobs they lost.
Copyright 2020 NPR
$600 A Week: Poverty Remedy Or Job Slayer?
Corrected: July 27, 2020 at 10:00 PM MDT
An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the average take-home pay would be $940. That's the amount of unemployment benefits before taxes are taken out. Also, an earlier version mistakenly said America's poverty rate hasn't fallen as fast as it would have during this recession. Two studies actually show that the poverty rate hasn't dramatically worsened. Previously posted July 27: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits was for every person who lost a job because of the pandemic. The extra benefit goes to every person who qualifies for unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
