Restaurant owner posts sign blaming 'government state handouts' for slow service amid staff shortage

A California restaurant owner has pleaded with customers to be patient with his short-staffed taqueria because 'no one wants to work anymore' due to government handouts. And on June 25, the California state legislature voted in favor of passing a series of extensions to unemployment payments, including extending federally funded unemployment benefits for 20 additional weeks through September 11. It also continued the federal addition of $300 through September 4, extended the state’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs for 29 weeks through September 4 and added an additional $100 a week to people who qualify for regular unemployment benefits and earned self-employment income. That nearly tripled to $938 in April 2020, when Trump passed CARES - a temporary economic plan that boosted weekly unemployment payments by $600 and also gave employed people one-off stimulus checks. There may be a silver lining in sight for small businesses in California like Taco Loco because, on July 11, California reinstituted the pre-pandemic requirement that people on unemployment must actively be searching for work.