Landon
Mion | @landon_mion | Posted:
Jun 14, 2021 6:45 PM
The Maine state
government announced it would be offering $1,500 payments to residents who
begin working between June 15-30 in an effort to incentivize residents
currently receiving unemployment benefits to return to work.
The state government said
the payments, which are part of its “Back to Work” program, will be
administered by the Maine Department of Labor and the Department of Economic
and Community Development.
On top of the $1,500
payment, residents returning to the workforce in June will be eligible for an
additional $1,000 payment, according to the Bangor Daily News.
The program, which
operates on a first-come, first-serve basis and has the potential to impact up
to 7,500 Maine residents, will use $10 million of federal funds.
Maine Gov. Janet
Mills (D) said in a press release that the state is "providing
another tool to accelerate peoples’ transition back into the workforce."
We have worked hard over
the last fifteen months to get the pandemic under control so that it’s safe for
everyone to return to work. Now COVID cases are down, vaccines are widely
available, and jobs are plentiful.
In order to receive the
payment, employees are required to have received unemployment for the week of
May 29, 2021, accepted a full-time job paying less than $25 an hour and stay
with the job for eight weeks and stay with that job for eight weeks while not
receiving unemployment benefits.
The U.S. Chamber of
Commerce released a report in early
June, showing that the labor shortage in the U.S. has worsened since the start
of the new year, with a record 8.1 million vacant jobs in the U.S.
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