State to send checks to low-income workers
The “first round” of one-time $500 bonuses will soon be mailed to thousands of low-income workers, the governor’s office announced.
“Our Administration has worked quickly to design the parameters for the program with plans to efficiently begin distribution of these payments by the end of March. This program will support those workers who served our communities, especially early in the pandemic,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement.
The state’s COVID-19 Essential Employee Premium Pay program will distribute $460 million to an estimated 500,000 workers. The initiative relies on federal coronavirus relief dollars and was initially intended to reward low-income workers who manned the front lines at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, but the eligibility criteria released by the Baker administration on Tuesday included no such parameters.
Lawmakers gave the Baker administration wide leeway to develop the program criteria and the governor’s office said its aim is to “ensure this critical support is provided quickly to deserving workers across the Commonwealth.”
Baker had promised to get the funds out the door by the end of March when he signed the program into law back in December.
Eligibility is based on 2020 Massachusetts tax returns. Anyone who earned at least $12,750 — roughly working 20 hours a week for 50 weeks at the then-state minimum wage of $12.75 per hour — and their total income did not exceed 300% of the federal poverty level are eligible for payments.
That puts the maximum total income for a single person at $38,280 and up to $78,600 for a family of four. Married filers can each be eligible, provided each independently qualifies.
Anyone who received unemployment benefits in 2020 and front-line state employees who have received, or are in line to receive, a one-time bonus of up to $2,000 from the state are not eligible to collect the hazard payouts in the first round of funding.
Lawmakers last year called for bonuses ranging from $500 to $2,000 per worker. Their plan would have awarded the one-time payments to grocery, MBTA, health care and other low-income workers on the front lines throughout the 16-month state of emergency.