A few ways the American Rescue Plan delivers help to working families

For more than a year, SEIU members, worker leaders in the Fight for $15 and a Union and our allies have rallied, protested and called on lawmakers to take bold, immediate action to protect the health, safety and economic security of all working families. The American Rescue Plan is a big victory for all of us. While this legislation doesn’t include a $15 minimum wage, it helps put our nation on the road to recovery by addressing many of our needs. 

Here’s a few ways the American Rescue Plan delivers help to working families:

• It provides desperately needed funding to help the frontline public service workforce and the essential services they provide for our cities, towns, counties and states. Under the American Rescue Plan, states, local, tribal and territorial governments received $360 billion in assistance to give essential workers pay raises, safely reopen schools and colleges, and address the health crisis in our communities and other priorities. 
• It helps people who are out of work to pay rent, put food on the table and keep the lights on. The American Rescue Plan puts money directly into the pockets of families by: 
  1. Providing a $1,400 survival check to households with incomes of $75,000 or less.
  2. Temporarily expands the child tax credit to $3000 per child ($3600 for children under 6), half of which will be paid monthly based on the previous year's tax filing.
  3. Expanding the Paycheck Protection Program
  4. Giving assistance for airline contractors to keep essential workers on the payroll
  5. Extending unemployment and SNAP benefits through September
  6. Helping working families offset the cost of care for children under 13 and other dependents through child tax credits.
  7. Respecting the contributions immigrant communities make to this nation by removing barriers for stimulus checks for mixed-status families.
  8. Offering emergency assistance to renters, nearly $10 billion to help homeowners struggling with mortgage payments, utility bills and other housing costs.
• It keeps hundreds of thousands of workers on the job. This bill includes provisions to:
  1. Keep essential workers at our nation’s airports on the payroll with $1 billion in assistance for airline contractors
  2. Give more access to child care assistance for workers through a $41 billion for child care providers and $1 billion for Head Start
  3. Expand the employee retention tax credit (ERTC) for start up businesses'
• It helps to make our communities healthier. The American Rescue Plan:
  1. Requires Medicaid and CHIP to cover COVID-19 vaccines and treatment
  2. Increases Medicaid (FMAP) funding for states
  3. Improves nursing home safety
  4. Provides $7.6 billion in funding to establish a public health workforce
  5. Helps insure eligible workers with COBRA subsidies that will cover 100% of the     premium for six months

Need more information about the American Rescue Plan, click here.