As the business community celebrates Gov. Ducey’s ending of pandemic supplemental pay for Arizonans, workers’ advocate groups are calling the decision short-sighted.
Andrew Sugrue with the Arizona Center for Economic Progress said the move will cost Arizona $1 billion in federal jobless assistance and create worry for poor households.
“People might be accepting jobs they otherwise wouldn’t have. Maybe that’s taking a job away from someone who needs it. And so, I think it’s injecting a lot of anxiety into a group of low income workers,” he said.
Sugrue mocked the governor’s $2,000 back-to-work bonuses for those who obtain full-time work, stop receiving unemployment insurance and stay in the job for at least 10 weeks as being, “a fraction of what people were earning on unemployment insurance.”
