Because they've never been on unemployment and small business owners largely have a poor opinion of UI in general.

My MIL was laid off from a university job at the beginning of the pandemic and her UI ran out a looong time ago. The only reason she even collected it for as long as she did was because nobody is hiring elderly women.

It also doesn't help that it takes forever to get it, at least in CA. There is no one you can call at the EDD, it is so ironic that the unemployment office needs to hire more in the richest state in the richest nation on earth. It took someone I knew two months to get their EDD debit card. Bills don't stop just because you lose your job.

Call your representative.

If they are worth their salt they should be fighting for you.

Everytime my family or friends have trouble with federal or state government we contact our representative and let his office go fight on our behalf. It's part of what they're elected for. Hopefully your experience with your representative is a good one.

Its $300 a week not a month. $300 a week is $7.50 an hour at 40 hours a week. People are getting this on top of normal unemployment. So it very well may be more than what some people were getting paid to work.

Free money is a disincentive to work. But the effect is strongest on jobs that pay <$15/hr or don't include health insurance.

I wonder if there will be a sharp downward trend in per-worker productivity in those “$300/mo makes you lazy” jobs once everyone goes back to work. Boss makes a dollar, you make a dime and all that.