Last year, there was some evidence to suggest that $600 bonus payments were creating a barrier to job growth. For instance, job applications fell once the policy was implemented, and when the bonus ended last August, more people rejoined the labor force. But last year’s bonus payments came at a different phase in the pandemic, with cases spiking and no vaccine. Many businesses were not hiring because of the government-imposed lockdowns, and there was at least an argument that it made sense to pay people to stay home to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. With wider vaccination and more businesses reopening, we are in a much different place today. We should very much want people to return to work, and remove measures that were only justified in the belly of a once-in-a-century pandemic. Yet in March, Biden signed a COVID-relief bill that extended the policy of giving unemployed workers $300-per-week bonuses on top of normal unemployment benefits into September. For many workers, this has made it more profitable to stay home than to work.