On March 27, Congress completed
its approval of the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief, and Economic Security
(CARES) Act, a $2.2 trillion deal
to provide economic relief to those
most affected by COVID-19, and the
President signed the bill into law.
Your ABMP staff was fully engaged,
educating Congress about the nature of
your work, the structure of your profession,
and how relief needed to be tailored to be
effective for you, and thousands of members
joined us in our lobbying efforts.
The CARES Act marks the third and
largest piece of COVID-19 relief legislation
developed by Congress, and even more
COVID-related legislation may be on
the horizon. It will take some time to
fully implement the 880-page bill, but the
following analysis will help ABMP members
get a head start on seeking relief.
DIRECT PAYMENTS
To begin, the CARES Act calls for no-
strings-attached, direct-dollar payments to
most individuals. If you make $75,000 a year
or less, regardless of whether you are still
working or are unemployed, you will receive
$1,200 from the federal government. If your
adjusted gross income is a bit higher—up to
$99,000—you will receive a lesser amount,
based on a sliding scale. If you are a single
parent head of household, your eligibility
ceiling is a bit higher. For families who file
taxes jointly, the comparable amounts are
$150,000 and $198,000. Eligible individuals
will also receive $500 per dependent
child who are under the age of 17.
You do not have to lift a finger to receive
this benefit. If the US Treasury has your
bank account number through your past
payment of taxes to the IRS or because you
receive Social Security directly into your
bank account, you most likely will receive
your funds in the last half of April or early
May. If the Treasury needs to issue a paper
check, you will be waiting longer. Here is
an April Washington Post article that lays out
payment priorities and the plans in detail.
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
The United States has an unemployment
insurance compensation system with
responsibilities split between the federal and
state governments. Individuals relate to the
system at the state level. While the federal
government dictates general parameters and
contributes part of the system costs, states
have flexibility as to payment amounts and
day-to-day administration of the program.
A massage therapist who works full time
for an employer, such as LoDo Massage
or Hand & Stone, and is laid off is eligible
to file with their state for unemployment
compensation. The amount of such
compensation typically is some fraction of
that individual's recent compensation, no
unemployment compensation is paid for
the initial week after filing, and each state
has limits on the duration of payments.
Part-time employees and self-employed
individuals in massage therapy, esthetics,
hair, and nails have not historically been
eligible for unemployment compensation.
However, in response to the
devastating elimination of people's ability
to work at these professions because of
coronavirus restrictions, the CARES Act
has temporarily loosened some of those
restrictions. The enhanced benefits run
through June 30, 2020.
As is always the case with unemployment
benefits, they cease when an individual finds
new employment or is able to return to
previous work. The new act is vague about
what constitutes a return to work (A full
client load? Seeing two clients?). Each state
may have perspective on this matter.
Under the CARES Act, unemployment
insurance benefits will temporarily be
available to "an eligible self-employed
individual" . . . "an individual who regularly
carries on any trade or business" within
the meaning of a specified section of the
F o r t h e l a t e s t i n f o r m a t i o n v i s i t w w w. a b m p . c o m / c o v i d - u p d a t e s . 5
Internal Revenue Code of 1986. It appears
that this expanded eligibility applies
to individuals who work "part time," a
government definition that would cover
a large proportion of massage therapists,
estheticians, hair stylists, and nail
professionals.
Individual states are in charge of
deploying unemployment benefits, and
states are in the process of creating language
that would lay out the requirements for
what counts as wages for those who are self-
employed or independent contractors. We
expect this will be in place some time during
the week of April 13, 2020. We encourage
you to visit your state unemployment
website for the most updated information.
You have to take the initiative to apply
for unemployment insurance. In the short-
term, the application process is likely to be
daunting. Literally 10 million people filed
for unemployement benefits in just the past
two weeks. State unemployment offices are
swamped; this is frustrating, but you simply
have to file in order to receive benefits. The
carrot: in many states you could be eligible
in total for around $1,000/week for up to 39
weeks if you remain unemployed that long.
If your state unemployment insurance
agency determines you are eligible, you will
receive weekly two amounts:
• the amount the state calculates under
existing rules, which will be some
fraction of your recent earned income
from your trade or profession; and
• an additional $600 per week, constituting
special coronavirus relief, courtesy
of the federal government.
States have a choice whether to lump
these two amounts together in a single
check or to issue two checks.
In addition, under the current
unemployment system, approved applicants
receive no payment for the first week of
eligibility. The CARES Act waives this
provision. The federal government will be
reimbursing states to enable them to begin
unemployment payments right away.