Pay employers who hire the unemployed

Stanley R. Goldfarb, Las Vegas

Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009 | 2:03 a.m.

Every month the government sends unemployment checks to millions of jobless Americans … for not working. What if those checks were diverted to employers who would hire those unemployed workers to cover a portion of their wages?

Under such a plan, the worker’s wage would be greater than the benefit. Taxpayers want to pay part, not all, of the worker’s wage.

Preference might be given to startups, restricted to small business, to specific industries, geographic areas and/or demographics (elderly, young, minorities), thereby giving Congress something to debate.

The employer would guarantee a length of employment of at least six months beyond the end of the program’s benefits that the companies received (the worker would not be terminated the moment his unemployment benefit ends).

The employer would benefit only by the number of people he employs that exceeds the number that were on his job roll three months before the start of the program. In other words, terminating 10 current employees and hiring 10 unemployed would result in zero funding eligibility. Exception: terminating a foreign employee overseas would not count against him.

Undocumented workers, foreign workers and those paid “under the table” do not collect unemployment checks, so there is no incentive to hire them.

“The devil is in the details,” but the program would require only a small amount of additional funding, perhaps none.

Positive feedback would begin. As unemployed people start working, they would start buying. Companies would sell more and hire more workers.

At first I thought the GOP might support such a program since the cash goes directly to the employer. However, the GOP has no interest in seeing employment rise, consumer confidence increase and the economy recover. They need to obstruct President Barack Obama at every turn, since his failure is a prerequisite to their return to power.