{"id":544918,"date":"2021-05-28T21:58:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T01:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=544918"},"modified":"2021-05-28T22:20:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:20:16","slug":"20-gop-states-ending-gig-worker-unemployment-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/20-gop-states-ending-gig-worker-unemployment-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"20 GOP States Ending Gig Worker Unemployment Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F20-gop-states-ending-gig-worker-unemployment-benefits%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=544918&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GetFile-551.aspx\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Gig workers and independent contractors are seeing their unemployment benefits come to an end in 20 GOP states, creating financial anxiety and fear of the future, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/unemployment-benefits-gig-workers-republican-states\/\">CBS News<\/a> reported Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Selina Smedley, who lives in Mansfield, about 30 miles south of Dallas, told CBS News, &#8220;There&#8217;s no unemployment&#8221; after June 26 for her and other self-employed workers in Texas. &#8220;It&#8217;s really frustrating that the feds gave us this to help us, and our governor just throws it to the wind. You can&#8217;t prepare for it when it&#8217;s a month away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Smedley, 50, is one of the almost 1 million self-employed, independent contractors, or gig&nbsp;workers, set to lose benefits under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program early when it ends in Texas and 19 other GOP run states, CBS News said.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/coronavirus\/unemployment-insurance#faqs\">program <\/a>was passed in January during the administration of President Donald Trump and extended benefits to those put out of work, or those that lost self-employment income during the pandemic, until March.<\/p>\n<p>The extension included normal unemployment benefit amounts from the state and an additional $300 per week federal payment.<\/p>\n<p>A subsequent extension from the incoming administration of President Joe Biden, under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/american-rescue-plan\/\">American Rescue Plan,<\/a> extended the benefits through mid-September.<\/p>\n<p>In 20 Republican-run states, however, governors are ending the program because of the huge number of job openings resulting from the ease in the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When (Texas Gov. Greg) Abbott said there are millions of jobs, maybe so \u2014 but for people like me, no one is going to hire a 50-year-old woman who has been out of the loop for so long,&#8221; Smedley said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the number of this group of workers increased nationally from 52 million in 2015 to 57 million in 2019, including people that work at full-time jobs, but also moonlight.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott and other GOP governors point to the worker shortage in many industries as the nation reopens and say there are jobs available to put these people back on payrolls.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are nearly 60 percent more jobs open (and listed) in Texas today than there was in February 2020,&#8221; Abbott said May 17.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is very dangerous for these states to feel comfortable with peeling back the program,&#8221; Rafael Espinal, executive director of Freelancers Union, told CBS News. &#8220;There are domestic workers who are having trouble getting back to work because people aren&#8217;t currently hiring in those fields.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gig workers and independent contractors are seeing their unemployment benefits come to an end in 20 GOP states, creating financial anxiety and fear of the future, CBS News reported Friday. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2313471,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GetFile-551.aspx","fifu_image_alt":"20 GOP States Ending Gig Worker Unemployment Benefits","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GetFile-551.aspx","fifu_image_alt":"20 GOP States Ending Gig Worker Unemployment Benefits","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2313471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}