We’ve heard a lot about living wages during the pandemic. We’ve seen essential workers demanding pay to make ends meet. Erika Zucker said the bulk of the jobs in New Orleans don’t let them meet that threshold. She said $15 per hour doesn’t provide much financial latitude.
“It’s still paycheck-to-paycheck living. It just means that from paycheck to paycheck, you’re not falling behind,” Zucker said.
Zucker is with the Workplace Justice Project at the Loyola Law Clinic. She said the City Council’s living wage ordinance is monumental because it shows lobbying by workers is effective and city government is willing to hear them out. That said, the $15 per hour rate would take effect in 2023. Zucker said workers with children need help now.
By David Jacobs | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A Louisiana task force voted Thursday to recommend using federal stimulus money to raise the balance of the fund that pays for unemployment benefits to $750 million.
The fund has been exhausted by unprecedented demand during the COVID-19-related economic downturn. How much it would cost to raise the balance to $750 million, which under existing law would keep employer taxes and worker benefits at their current level, depends on how much the state collects from employers’ tax payments and how much officials are forced to borrow from the federal government to pay benefits.
Task force recommends raising unemployment fund balance
A Louisiana task force voted Thursday to recommend using federal stimulus money to raise the balance of the fund that pays for unemployment benefits to $750 million.
The fund has been exhausted by unprecedented demand during the COVID-19-related economic downturn. How much it would cost to raise the balance to $750 million, which under existing law would keep employer taxes and worker benefits at their current level, depends on how much the state collects from employers’ tax payments and how much officials are forced to borrow from the federal government to pay benefits.
State officials said last week first-quarter tax payments would begin arriving in the next few weeks, which would allow the state to stop borrowing, at least temporarily. Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Dejoie said the state’s debt to the federal government might reach $240 million.