The recently passed Paycheck Protect Plan is designed to incent small businesses to keep their employees working by loaning them enough money to keep their businesses running at full employment for eight weeks. Under this plan if a company is successful in doing this the loan becomes a grant and does not have to be paid back. Problem is, the eight week clock starts ticking when the loan is received, and if there is no work to be done because of stay at home orders or lack of demand it is hard to keep people working when there is no work to be done. Compounding the problem is the $600 federal unemployment benefit which is paid on top of any current state benefits, making unemployment more lucrative than working for many employees.
Joe Walsh, Founder and President of Green Clean Maine, is spearheading a campaign in his home state of Maine to educate the public and motivate political leaders to address these gaps. The idea is to get law makers to fix the law so it is economically rational for employers to bring workers back to work and for employees to work rather than draw unemployment. Joe is taking a two-pronged approach by reaching out to both political leaders as well as the press. So far, he has spoken with a number of political leaders and news outlets, including Senator Collins’ office (one of the 4 senators who wrote the bill) and the Wall Street Journal.
Joe has created two templates that all small business owners can use to do the same thing. Please take a moment to download these and put them to work. Not only will it help fix the current laws but it will be good visibility for your business at a time when being top of mind with your clients should be a priority.
