That brings the maximum unemployment payment to $962 per week, which is $82 more than Moran pays his average welders, and $353 more than the average wage in the northeast Lower Peninsula. In fact, it’s not far off the average wage in all of Michigan, prompting fears among merchants and economists that, once the economy is reopened, businesses will still be competing — at least for a time — with larger-than-normal unemployment checks.

“The restaurant owners are really worried about it,” said Samantha Farley, a business owner in Indian River. “They can’t touch what unemployment pays.”

The extra money in lower-wage communities can provide an “incentive not to go back to work,” said the Rev. Davis Wallis, pastor of Church of the Straits in Mackinaw City. Wallis and his congregation operate one of Cheboygan County’s food banks that are open from November through April, when tourism employees are unemployed and “living on a lot less income.”

“There’s no doubt they’re going to be making more until July 25,” said Wallis.

“I don’t begrudge people for taking advantage of it,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s good economics to pay someone more than when they were working.”

Some employers, like Moran, say they’re already concerned about rebuilding their workforce.

Economists also are studying wage replacement rates during the pandemic, and looking at how that will influence economic recovery.

Short-term, the payments provide a lifeline to workers amid the global economic crisis. They also keep money flowing into the general economy, providing an overall boost.

But as jobs return, the economic rebound will depend on getting people back to work.

“There’s a behavioral component,” said Chris O’Leary, senior economist at the Upjohn Institute in Kalamazoo. “Once people get on [unemployment checks], it takes them a while to get off. Especially when the wage replacement rate is so high.”

That’s not a conversation that’s taken place in Michigan until recently. The state “is not generous with benefits,” said Eric Lupher, president of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.

Before coronavirus, Michigan’s maximum payout on unemployment was $362 per week, an amount set in 2003 and unchanged since. The maximum duration was rolled back from 26 weeks to 20 weeks as the state confronted budget shortfalls during the Great Recession.

This spring, those rules have changed: Michigan has broadened the categories for workers who can file for unemployment, and they now can get benefits for 26 weeks. A federal extension makes benefits possible for 39 weeks.

Laid-off workers offered a return to work must accept it, according to the Department of Labor, but coronavirus creates exceptions for people caring for people, like children who no longer attend school.

And now, due to federal funding, people receiving jobless benefits also will get that extra $600 per week through the CARES Act. That amount is equal to $15 per hour for a 40-hour work week, and will be paid for up to 20 weeks. A person earning maximum state benefits and the CARES payment will take home the equivalent of $24.05 per hour for a full-time job.