Big welfare handouts mean folks who stay home are living high on the hog off your tax dollars

Professor Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago and I found that unemployment benefits can reach unexpected high levels in many states.

E. J. Antoni is a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis and a senior fellow at Committee to Unleash Prosperity.

During the pandemic, idled workers received unemployment "bonuses" so high that many were pocketing more than twice what they had been making on the job. Even without these extra weekly payments, unemployment benefits can reach unexpected high levels in many states. In New Jersey, for instance, a family of four with no one working can receive unemployment benefits equivalent to a job paying over $96,000. That’s more than the median household earns in wages and benefits combined.

High unemployment benefits are not unique to the Garden State. In 13 states, a family can receive annualized unemployment benefits worth more than the median household income. The value of unemployment benefits comes not just from their sheer size, but their tax advantages as well. Unlike earned income, unemployment benefits are exempt from payroll taxes, and six states also exempt them from the respective state income tax.