'It's not that unemployment benefits are too high. ... It's that pay is far too low. This should be a wake-up call for a country that has spent decades mistreating, neglecting and radically underpaying its workers,' writes JillFilipovic for CNNOpinion
Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in New York and author of the book"OK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind." Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely her own. View more opinion articles on CNN.
Jill FilipovicMany Republicans see these numbers and conclude the problem is unemployment payments that are, in their estimation, doled out to lazy people unwilling to work. Two dozen Republican-governed states have refused the federally funded $300 weekly unemployment supplement, and 36 states now require that anyone receiving unemployment benefits prove that they've looked for work unsuccessfully.
'I'm not lazy': Single mom relies on unemployment benefits to care for daughter 03:03Consider: The US has not raised the federal minimum wage in more than a decade, and $7.25 an hour was a paltry sum even then. If today's minimum wage were commensurate with productivity increases over the last 50 years, it would be $22 an hour.