For many workers — those who earn up to $1,200 a week, depending on the state — that additional benefit means their unemployment pay could exceed what they were earning on the job. The discrepancy could encourage some companies to furlough workers.

Small-business aid from an initial $349 billion pot has been slow to arrive for many companies already staring down the possibility of bankruptcy, with bureaucratic and technological hurdles bedeviling the program. The Paycheck Protection Program — which offers companies forgivable loans to continue covering their payroll — began taking applications only on April 3, weeks after many merchants had been ordered to close their doors. Very little of the more than $100 billion committed through it so far has actually made it into borrowers’ hands.

Banks, which are expected to front the money for the program, are still battling bottlenecks at the overwhelmed Small Business Administration and are waiting for technical information they need to close and fund the loans. Smaller banks are on the verge of running out of cash to lend. They are relying on the Federal Reserve to quickly repurchase their paycheck program loans, which the Fed has said it will do, but it has not yet provided details on its plan.

A program aimed at keeping airline employees on the payrolls is also in a holding pattern, as the Treasury Department vets applications from airlines and prepares to negotiate what the government will receive in exchange for bailing them out.

And individual checks to help millions of Americans continue to pay bills are not expected to arrive until April 15, at the earliest

Even the Fed’s “Main Street” lending program, announced Thursday, may prove insufficient for business needs. It operates through banks, so it still requires lenders to feel comfortable extending credit. And while they can sell most of the loans they originate — the Fed will buy 95 percent of eligible loans, up to $600 billion worth — the banks will still have to hang onto a tiny slice of risk. There is no clear date when the program will be up and running.