Gov.Whitmer Proposes $300 a Week Back to Work Incentive

Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmer wants residents back to work. So much so, she's proposing that they receive a incentive bonus to encourage them to clock back in.

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The proposed plan, announced Monday during a press conference, would provide a bonus of $300 per week to specific employees returning to their previous jobs through September 4,2021.

Gov. Whitmer stated she felt the incentive was a great way to get everyone back to work.

“This is how we encourage people to get back to work without paying a price or making false choices,” she said.

She went on to say, 

"We're going to use the federal $300 per week in unemployment benefits to our advantage, so we can incentivize people to get back to work, maximize a family's income and help employers fully build up their businesses and staff,"

Currently, the payments are going to be available only to employers participating in the state workshare program who bring back people previously employed, although Whitmer is looking to expand the incentive eligibility. She is hoping to sway law makers to change the law allowing the incentive to be include workers finding a new career. That would mean those individuals hired as a new employee by a business through a workshare program.

Whitmer hopes the new proposal will alleviate Michigan residents from having to  choose to get back to work or still collecting their weekly unemployment check.

"Generally, people would have to choose: Either you take that, or you get back into the workplace. We don't want people to have that false choice, set people up for failure. We want to encourage people to get back into the workplace," Whitmer said.

Currently there is no official program start date or any indication on how many people are expected to be eligible, or what the eligibility dates would be for those returning to work.