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That Extra $600 In Weekly Unemployment Benefits Is Going Away. What's Next In California?
Signs alert customers on Tuesday that the Apple Store in Santa Monica — and Apple stores nationwide — remain closed amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)
Federal legislation passed early in the coronavirus pandemic included an extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits. But now those payments are going away, and losing them would have massive ripple effects.
Those federal payments have now pumped more than $26 billion into California's unemployment system. So far Congress hasn't come up with a plan to extend them.
What does that mean for Californians? A dramatic drop in unemployment payments.
Without that federal money, Californians would receive a median weekly payment of just $339 in state unemployment insurance, according to a recent analysis from researchers with the California Policy Lab.
UCLA economist Till von Wachter, one of the researchers, said that without the federal $600 boost:
"About half of Californians would have weekly benefits that put them below the federal poverty line."
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