State Sen. Nancy Detert should avoid walking past an unemployment office anytime soon.
She filed a bill on Jan. 31 aimed to tighten Florida’s restrictions on unemployment benefits, and it’s in committee now.
With the state’s jobless rate sitting at 11 percent, Florida needs solutions to keep from borrowing money to fund unemployment benefits. The bill proposes several solutions to cut spending, including tying weekly payments to the unemployment rate and forcing people receiving benefits to take any job that pays more than their unemployment checks if they’ve been out of work for more than three months.
We’ve got a few problems with the legislation. While we agree something has to be done about Floridians being out of work, we don’t think forcing people into taking minimum wage jobs is the way to do it.
The fear that people may be taking advantage of the system to just sit at home and collect checks isn’t unfounded, but we’re inclined to think most unemployed people would rather find a decent job than haul in less than minimum wage week after week. There are people who are using the system how it was intended — as a way to tide them over during hard times — and this bill would punish them along with the moochers.
Keep in mind that even with voluntary couchsitters, jobs are scarce to come by.
Where are people supposed to go after their 12 weeks are up?
Even if there were jobs to be had, having another job to receive benefits would cut down the amount of time a person has to look for work more suited for their abilities and closer to their old salaries.
Another issue crops up with eliminating the edge employees have in disputes with former employers. The bill would shift the benefit of the doubt to businesses, leaving the unemployed facing tough legal battles many of them couldn’t afford.
We question the need for leaning to one side or the other because the abuses made possible for either side would hurt the state’s entire economy.
If the newly jobless are favored, the state will see the problems we have now, including people who stole from or acted disrespectfully at their workplaces receiving undeserved money.
On the other hand, giving employers the advantage would leave them open to denying nearly everyone benefits if they can point to misdeeds or mistakes the employees have made.
Sen. Detert said she knows her proposal will be unpopular, but she should consider why.
With at least one of every 10 people out of a job, it stands to reason the problems are rooted less in the need to cut unemployment benefits and more in the lack of opportunity afforded the unemployed. Most of them want to start bringing home a check from someone other than the government.
Faced with these dilemmas, we’re reminded of our new governor’s campaign slogan. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to get back to work.
