Thursday, May 6, 2021

Montana: Get Back to Work!

Loafing pay abolished, return to work rewarded

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte issued the following statement.

Governor Greg Gianforte today announced two measures to address the state’s severe workforce shortage and incentivize Montanans to reenter the labor force.

The State of Montana will launch a return-to-work bonus program, utilizing federal funds authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act. Return-to-work bonuses will be paid to unemployed individuals who rejoin the labor force and accept and maintain steady employment for at least one month.

The governor also announced the State of Montana will end its participation in federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs and transition to pre-pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) eligibility and benefits by the end of June.

“Montana is open for business again, but I hear from too many employers throughout our state who can’t find workers. Nearly every sector in our economy faces a labor shortage,” Gov. Gianforte said.

“Incentives matter,” Gov. Gianforte continued, “and the vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good. We need to incentivize Montanans to reenter the workforce. Our return-to-work bonus and the return to pre-pandemic unemployment programs will help get more Montanans back to work.”

Across Montana, employers struggle to find workers, particularly in the health care, construction, manufacturing, and hospitality and leisure industries.

Returning to pre-pandemic unemployment eligibility and offering return-to-work incentives will encourage workers to reenter the workforce and help ease a critical labor shortage across Montana.

“Montana’s unemployment rate is at just 3.8% – near pre-pandemic lows – and statewide there are record numbers of new job postings each week. But today, despite an influx of new residents into Montana over the last year, our labor force is some 10,000 workers smaller than it was before the pandemic,” Commissioner of Labor and Industry Laurie Esau said. “Our labor shortage doesn’t just affect employers and business owners. Employees who are forced to work longer shifts, serve more customers or clients, and take on more duties have been paying the price.”

Montana will be the first state in the nation to fully opt out of the federal unemployment benefit programs enacted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Requirements that unemployment insurance claimants actively seek work and be “able and available” for work will be reinstated effective June 27, as well.

Specifically, Montana’s Department of Labor & Industry announced the following changes to the unemployment insurance (UI) program:

  • Starting June 27, 2021, claimants who have exhausted their traditional UI benefits but had continued to receive them through the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program will no longer be eligible for UI payments.
  • Beginning June 27, 2021 Montana will no longer be issuing supplemental $300 weekly payments to claimants under the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program.
  • Beginning June 27, 2021, Montana will no longer participate in the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. PUA presently provides benefits to the self-employed, the underemployed, independent contractors, and individuals who have been unable to work due to health or COVID-19 affected reasons. 
  • Starting June 27, 2021, Montana will no longer participate in the Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation (MEUC) program, which offers supplemental payments to individuals who had both traditional W-2 income as well as self-employment income.
  • Requirements that claimants be able to work, available for work, and actively seeking work in order to be considered eligible for benefits will be reinstated effective June 27, 2021. These requirements had previously been suspended under emergency rule-making authority in March of last year. More information about work-search and “able & available” requirements is available in the UI Claimants handbook.

Unemployment insurance claimants will be receiving information soon about how these changes affect them individually. Until then, claimants with questions about their future eligibility are encouraged to visit MontanaWorks.gov or contact the Department of Labor & Industry at 406-444-2545. Claimants receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) should contact 406-444-3382.

The Return-to-Work Bonus initiative will offer $1,200 payments to individuals receiving unemployment benefits as of May 4, 2021, who subsequently accept employment and complete at least four paid weeks of work. Individuals eligible for the bonus will be contacted by the Department of Labor and Industry and informed of their eligibility, as well as more information about how to ensure they receive the payment after they complete four weeks of employment.

For More Information:

  • A summary of the changes to be implemented to Montana’s Unemployment Insurance program can be viewed here. 
  • More information about Montana’s labor shortage is available here.
  • More information about the governor’s proposed Return-to-Work Bonuses can be found here.

 Kingfish note: Tate, Gilbert, and Phillip: Are y'all paying attention? Get it done.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

This might work due to the demographics of Montana which are vastly more productive than the demographics of Mississippi.

There is no city in Montana with an Antar Chokwe Lumumba as mayor. And Billings, MT is actually a functioning and growing city.

Anonymous said...

Wait.

You can’t force ppl to wear masks but you can force them to work?

Takin it off boss!

Anonymous said...

Not forcing them to work just not paying the not to.

Anonymous said...

9:05 for the win!!

Anonymous said...

This is great! It all starts with a mindset. Well, it's really not a start but a "return to" of what we once were.

Like Rosie-The-Riveter... can-do/self-reliant/strong will people in the America we grew up with... when we were taught principled things. Long before the onset of liberal ideas that tore apart family fabric with do-all/be-all government.

Handouts, PC & cancel culture needs to be canceled themselves for a hope of survival in the U.S. Hopefully more states will follow Montana's lead.

Retiree said...

There was a time when 'work search' (during a period of UI) was actually mandatory and had teeth in it. Now all they have to give is the name of three companies from 'the yellow pages' (or the names of three Dollar Generals) and claim they completed an application at one of them.

Nobody at MDES has checked on these for decades. All they do is process claims and approve payment and key crap into their database. There is no such thing as a viable work-search or availability-for-work requirement in order to sit on your ass and have your card loaded with cash weekly.

Also, at one time, claimants were required to attend Job Search Skills Training classroom training at the agency in order for their claim to be continued. Maybe Montana has a handle on it or at least is making an effort. The Mississippi agency could not care less.

Anonymous said...

In response to 9:05: One who is so resistant to taking direction that he can't/won't follow the most basic public health guidelines is probably not employable, at least not for very long.

Anonymous said...

People want to go back to work, but they want to be paid more. Not all of these people want to sit on their a**es for handouts. It is funny how a some of you think that people are living luxurious lives on these small amounts of money. People are struggling, and they know that $2.14/hr plus tips and $7.50/hr will not do it. They even know that $12/hr won't do it.

And before you start with that bootstraps bull, you people do know that sayings origin was meant as sarcasm.

I am personally for universal healthcare, SNAP (food stamps/EBT), and universal childcare. I am for short-term to little unemployment insurance. That way all able-bodied people can (will have to) work and pay into the plan, and we do not have to pay for generations of the dole for able-bodied people. I think more people will work, if they know that they have health insurance, and if things are really hard, food will still be on the table. I think this solution is better for Main St. than the current corporate welfare/Wall St. model.

It is too bad that we have been tricked/hoodwinked into voting against our best interests.

Anonymous said...

Cut off every benefit. If the poors won’t work for what we pay them, they can starve. I am sick of the government taking my wealth and redistributing it.

Anonymous said...

9:55, please spare us the myths about working for nothing and patriotism and "Rosie." Folks need a living wage.

In the spring of 1941, strikes began to sweep American defense plants–one of the most bitter in Wisconsin, at the Allis-Chalmers plant manufacturing turbine engines for navy destroyers.

More than 3,500 strikes took place through 1941, cutting defense production by 25 percent. And, Bubba, we were ALREADY drafting folks.

Then, despite a much-ballyhooed no-strike pledge signed after Pearl Harbor, strikes and work stoppages continued throughout the war–with a shutdown at one facility forcing work to stop at another. But the record is very clear.

The number of strikes soared from 22 in January 1942, just a month after Pearl Harbor, to more than 220 by July. Strikes jumped even higher in 1943, from 4.1 million labor days lost to 13.5 million.

The shortage of labor during World War II caused sharp increases in wages. Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers in manufacturing more than doubled between 1940 and 1949.

So, all you "patriotic" hard core capitalists (just LiberaLtarian greedsters in reality) have a labor shortage and need to increase wages.

But, you're too greedy, as well as ignorant of history and economics.

Anonymous said...

10:46 "...you people..." ?

Very telling.

Anonymous said...

@1:05 PM
CEO Warbucks didn’t have Chinese robots in the 1940s.
They didn’t have H1B visas.
I don’t need to pay you at all.
Go learn to code, commie.
You can get paid the same as the H1Bs desperate to come work here.

Anonymous said...

The ideas expressed at 1:53 may work in a Libertarian think-tank, while passing the bong around, but I certainly don't want to live there.

Anonymous said...

I hope we follow Montana's lead.

(Paging Governor Tate Reeves)

Also .... 10:11 AM speaks the truth.

I remember the JSST (Job Search Skills Training) requirement very well.
Many people drawing regular unemployment back then hated the JSST requirement worse than the monthly ER.
( Eligibility review)

Which was another required "in person" appointment.

While I truly enjoyed helping the folks that actually deserved to receive Unemployment Benefits, I really enjoyed
helping "cut off" the lazy people trying to cheat yet another government program.

But that era of strict enforcement ended during 1990s.





Anonymous said...

@3:16
Ever wonder why you aren’t rich?

Anonymous said...

Mississippi is truly a festering s-hole for the most part. It will always reward the lazy.

Anonymous said...

Anybody who gets all bothered by the term 'you people' deserves to stew in his own warm sewage.

Half the population tries really hard to find something that offends them so they can sit on the damned porch and fester in victimhood while teaching their babies to hate folks who don't look like them.

Dayum...You People!

Anonymous said...

6:09 We already knew that... but thanks for admitting it.

Indeed, very telling.

Anonymous said...

4:18: Is it because I’m not a ruthless prick who exploits people?

LoMo said...

A lot of people in these states don't want to return to work - not because they're "lazy" or any other dog whistles politicians use, but because (1) they don't want to be forced into close quarters with other workers and catch Covid and bring it home; and (2) a lot of these people who allegedly "refuse to work" are mothers with children who can't afford childcare.

Voice of Experience said...

3:38 - Those are a couple of reasons people are allowed to draw UI in states like California. I had a California claimant who quit work 'in order to stay home and help her daughter who was not feeling well'. The claim was allowed for 'adequate domestic and familial circumstances'. The bottom line, in Mississippi, would have been: Work was available, the claimant quit the job and left for reasons not allowed under Mississippi UI law, claim disallowed.

People can come up with forty 'excuses' to quit a job or not return to one, when offered. Very damned few of them should be allowed in the claims process.

"Out of work through no fault of your own" has meaning. It doesn't mean 'I didn't feel like working', 'I was thinking I might get sick at work' or 'I can't find childcare' or 'they don't pay me enough'. Take your liberal, entitlement thought process and cram it!

Anonymous said...

3:38 people are milking this Covid bullshit for too long. Our office has never shut down, all have kids. A few of us have gotten it and 'gasp' we are all still here. Kids are fine. We're all vaccinated. Life is pretty much back to normal. Stay in your shell if you'd like to. We are going to continue to live our lives.

Anonymous said...

What will be the position of some when robotics has taken all jobs? Oh yeah, it's coming.

Anonymous said...

9:14 - If pipeliners can be trained to close down fracking operations, burger flippers can be trained to repair the robots that took their jobs. Next Question?


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Trollfest '07 was such a success that Jackson Jambalaya will once again host Trollfest '09. Catch this great event which will leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Othor Cain and his band, The Black Power Structure headline the night while Sonjay Poontang returns for an encore performance. Former Frank Melton bodyguard Marcus Wright makes his premier appearance at Trollfest singing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Kamikaze will sing his new hit, “How I sold out to da Man.” Robbie Bell again performs: “Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Bells” and “Any friend of Ed Peters is a friend of mine”. After the show, Ms. Bell will autograph copies of her mug shot photos. In a salute to “Dancing with the Stars”, Ms. Bell and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith will dance the Wango Tango.

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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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