A second spherical of $500 checks will likely be distributed subsequent month to 330,000 low-income employees in Massachusetts at a value of about $165 million underneath the COVID-19 Essential Employee Premium Pay program.
The first spherical of funds, distributed in March, offered $500 checks to about 480,000 Bay Staters. People within the second spherical of funds didn’t obtain something within the first.
“The second round of $500 checks will be appreciated by the working poor since the current inflation rate of over 8% has cut into their purchasing power,” mentioned Jay Zagorsky of Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
“However, if the state of Massachusetts is really trying to reward essential employees for continuing to work during a pandemic, it will have to figure out a faster way in the future of getting money into people’s hands,” Zagorsky mentioned. “The current payments compensate people for work done … anywhere from 5 to 17 months ago. Rewards given after a long lag don’t get people to step up when the next pandemic hits.”
Eligibility will likely be primarily based on filed 2021 Massachusetts tax returns. People will likely be eligible for funds if their 2021 revenue from employment was at the least $13,500, and their whole revenue put them at or beneath 300% of the federal poverty stage, which is about by the federal authorities and will increase with family or household dimension.
“It’s important for our struggling consumers that some of the billions of taxpayer supplied ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) dollars are indeed returned to our families to meet their needs,” mentioned Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
The laws creating the Premium Pay program included $500 million for low-income important employees; this $460 million program includes nearly all of these funds, and $40 million was allotted to fund earlier agreements with state worker unions. Information on plans to disburse funds remaining after June will likely be launched sooner or later.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”