CLEVELAND, Ohio ­— Ohio will not follow a new federal option allowing states to extend unemployment insurance to workers who lose pay because of the novel coronavirus but are usually ineligible for such benefits.

These are often low-wage workers with no paid sick days or other leave to cover them if they are exposed to the coronavirus or if their employer temporarily shuts down because of business lost to the outbreak. These include restaurant workers, who may lose hours as many public events are canceled in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, or a home health aide, who has to be quarantined.

See: Many out of work due to coronavirus aren’t eligible for unemployment benefits

On Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department gave states flexibility in administering unemployment insurance programs in response to the coronavirus pandemic. For now, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is passing on the offer.

“[W]e have been and will continue to assess the impact that COVID-19 will have on our operations agency wide, including unemployment,” said an ODJFS statement emailed to The Plain Dealer. “Clearly, this is an evolving situation, so our guidance will also evolve.”

The guidance covers a number of scenarios, including quarantined employees who are expected to return to work after the quarantine is over; workers whose employers temporarily shut down due to COVID-19; and employees who stop working “due to a risk of exposure or infection or to care for a family member.” A worker isn’t required to quit his or her job to become eligible for benefits. While many public-sector workers are guaranteed pay under such scenarios, either contractually or by administrative orders, large segments of the private-sector labor force could be left without a salary.

"Clarifying the flexibility in which a person may be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits during the coronavirus outbreak will ease financial burdens for those workers affected by the virus,” said John Pallasch, assistant labor secretary for the Employment and Training Administration, in a news release.

Enhanced unemployment benefits are included in an economic rescue package the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on as early as Friday night.

Many low-wage and part-time workers in Ohio wouldn’t qualify for unemployment insurance without the guidance. In order to be eligible, a worker must average $269 a week over at least 20 weeks.

“That means that even if you work 25 hours a week at $10 an hour you will never be eligible for unemployment insurance in Ohio,” said Zach Schiller, research director at the liberal Policy Matters Ohio. “That needs to change. This is why only about 1 in 5 Ohioans, who are unemployed, are receiving unemployment insurance right now.”

Ohio lags the nation in paid sick days, according to a recent analysis of Labor Department data by the liberal Economic Policy Institute. About 75% of private-sector workers in the United States had access to paid sick leave in 2019, according to Labor Department data. Only 65% of private-sector employees in Ohio and other industrial Midwest states have access to paid sick time. Many fear this will put the state at risk of a coronavirus outbreak as sick workers continue on their jobs because they don’t have paid sick days.

“It does not explicitly deal with eligibility if [workers are] without sick leave or after sick leave expires, but this is implicit,” wrote Stephen A. Wandner, a research fellow at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

He and Christopher J. O’Leary, a senior economist at the institute, have proposed unemployment insurance be expanded to not only cover those in the federal guidance, but also the self-employed, contract employees and gig workers.

“The COVID-19 virus is likely to cause major disruptions in U.S. labor markets for at least 18 months — until a vaccine is developed and widely administered,” Wandner and O’Leary wrote on the Upjohn Institute’s website. “Any program to help affected workers and stimulate the U.S. economy should be carefully targeted to workers who are most in need of income support and most likely to quickly spend these funds in the local economy.”

Schiller posted a brief on Policy Matters’ website this week that essentially makes the case for much of what is covered by the federal guidance to be permanent.

“What this does is exposes the flaws in our existing protection,” he said of the need for the Labor Department to have to issue a guidance.

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