Some lower-paid U.S. workers could effectively get a short-term raise if they lose their jobs during the coronavirus crisis, thanks to government computer systems that rely on 1950s-era technology.
FILE PHOTO: Shoppers wear masks in the Costco parking lot, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in the Brooklyn borough of New York U.S., March 26, 2020. REUTERS/Stephen Yang
But even that one-size-fits-all benefit boost will sorely test the state bureaucracies tasked with putting it in place, experts say. States will have to reprogram their computer systems to provide the new benefit. More than half, including California, New York and Pennsylvania, still rely on decades-old mainframe systems based on the COBOL language first introduced in 1959.
But states probably have saved their computer code from the 2009 increase and should be able to quickly deploy it to handle this $600 increase, said Andrew Stettner of The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank. Republican Senator Ben Sasse and others who opposed the uniform benefit say they will continue their efforts to change it, even after the bill passed the Senate in a 96-0 vote on Wednesday. The House of Representatives is due to vote on the measure on Friday.
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