Bitter Taste For Coffee Shop Owner, As New $600 Jobless Benefit Closed Her Business

Their goal was to provide good coffee, good Internet service and some opportunity in a community that has been starved of all three.

Eventually, she stopped letting customers come into the shop, delivering orders to the curb instead. But Marietta was determined to stay open.

Hey HorsleyScott I hope you're ashamed of this piece by now. You thought it was safe for people to go back to work in *April 2020* my man, you did murderous propaganda for the extreme far right and I hope you learned your lesson

Then she should also get $600 as well

Boooo. Bad reporting

Pay people a fracking LIVING WAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love how in the space of a day these toxic Bernie Bros can completely dissemble so-called legitimate news reporting and expose it as the naked capitalist propaganda it is. You are pathetic.

I love how you say “double the federal minimum wage” as if $7.25 an hour isn’t a national disgrace.

OR! Wait for it....she could pay her workers a living wage.

This is inaccurate. As noted below, if your job is available you cannot get unemployment assistance. This is an old RW canard recently uttered by Lindsey Graham. Poor reporting, NPR.

Heard this segment on the radio when it aired and it made me glad I haven’t donated to NPR since 2018.

jaketapper Then pay your workers more.

This obviously a case of failure to pay the prevailing wage. If there is people willing to pay for coffee , she should charge enough to pay both her employees the prevailing wage and her self. I don't see how this is a government policy problem

Pay your workers a living wage and you won't have to have any concern! Nobody wants to die for serving coffee!

Stupid Democrats who demanded this. Why are people paid more to sit home doing nothing, than most of the workers who have to go and work get paid?

The gov't should not incentivize people to do NO work. It is literally asking ppl to not contribute anything to the economy. This will kill most small businesses, bankrupt our country, and completely delay recovery.

Hey, why do you suck so bad?

That’s because people in Kentucky are one of the most underpaid states in America.

More fake news !!! You cant just quit and go on UI.

And for those who can’t get those benefits it’s awful I don’t make that much for 2 weeks of work

Our grandparents stormed Normandy fighting nazis. People were blown apart and shredded by machine gun fire, to preserve and restore freedom. Now, people want to stay home and collect a check, essentially collapsing the economy and sending the 3rd world into deep famine. Pussies.

Who the hell would pay someone so little then? Glad they shut down.

That’s not true.

The new narrative! I don't agree with the extra funds because it can be used for something else. Unemployment should just give ppl what they make if they were working, that's fair! Better yet, make rent and essential items more affordable. The cost of living exceeds ppl income.

That's not how that works.

They should open up their own business SaferAtHome

Yes, unemployment should never be enough to survive on. People on unemployment should go bankrupt and starve after three weeks unless they get another job paying wages that’ll make them go bankrupt and starve if they have one major calamity. Speaking of calamity, uh coronavirus.

Why not compare it to the billions bailing out failed corporations? Why are you begrudging someone $600 a week? disgusting

Maybe pay them more? $15 a hr is still not enough to support anyone anywhere. Greed has and will continue to ruin this country but this time greed is killing people fellow Americans and some just don’t care sad sad

Everyone knows if a business can not afford to pay workers at least $600 it is simply an excuse to boss other humans around. They don't need the profit off of this coffee shop to live. They own the building, they went to Harvard. It's just a hobby where they get to feel superior

NPR is equivalent to Breitbart News now.

It’s almost like $7.25/hr is a realistic level of pay and people should get $15. If only we had know earlier.

Why are you all making her into the bad guy? She is willing to lose money closing so that her employees can get the $15/hr unemployment. If she stayed open and they quit they'd get squat. It has nothing to with her paying exactly what most businesses pay employees. She is a hero

CypressEd If her business model/plan does not include paying her regular, experienced workers $15 hour plus some benefits, then she should not be in business. Entrepreneurship or franchisee “success” on the backs of her workers and their families is not a sustainable model: bc turnover.

Good.

NPR=Neoliberal Propaganda Radio.

Neoliberal Propaganda Radio.

GOOD. A café shouldn't be running in the middle of an epidemic.

Asymptotic convergence to 'End of Work'

Headline and many assertions within story are untrue, despite 'clarification' (buried at the end). Workers don't get Unemployment checks if they quit. Owner closed and laid them off. Not a single worker was quoted. Reprehensible journalism. HorsleyScott MorningEdition

Ugh...

Do better, npr. Thank you banditelli

npr, this is awful of you.

The levels of fuckery here.

How’s it feel to run corporate ads as if they’re journalism? Lol

Maybe this is a message people should be paid a livable salary where they can actually afford rent, food and start a savings.

NPR is deplorable. I quit listening. Now BBC and Pacifica station WAMU, Democracy Now.

Alternate Headline: Why won't the poors accept being poor and of no value when they need to serve people like me? You guys are pathetic and I hope the poor spit in your food every chance they get.

Yes, this is true. I have friends in other states who have restaurants and aren’t opening back up or offering take out because the employees they laid off are getting more money than they would get working. The restaurant owner is giving up her livelihood in favor of employees.

That is complete garbage right here.

I WISH I was getting $600 on UI, you conservative hacks

Hello, a kentuckian here. We ARE NOT getting 600 a week. This is a mess. You'll be lucky to get 600 and that's it!! When is AndyBeshearKY GovAndyBeshear going to do something about this? I'll single handeldy work there if it gets me some damn money!!

Who could have seen that coming? Everyone but DC I guess

Yo NPR, if you quit your job, you can’t file for unemployment, so obviously some other shits going down. They got laid off for asking for $

This is utter garbage.

I recently unsubscribed from NPR news alerts. Recently everything Trump says they’ve sent out under news alerts; without contextualizing many of his problematic comments. This article brings it all together. They must be under “right-leaning” siege.

What happened to the NPR I grew up with...? Was I just naive then or is this a real heel turn?

I left NPR when they started attacking Bernie.....

Clearly those who wrote the article and who are commenting have no idea at all about unemployment insurance. The federal government gives money to each state and states administer the money per their own formulas. No one ever gets more than 1/2 of what they formerly earned.

NPR is a fascist organization

Won’t somebody think of the business owners!

Making it in America: grousing over malarkey and getting articles written that feel your pain.

I guess she shouldn't have laid them off

Great job government. Incentivizing people not to work.

I stopped listening to NPR yrs ago, with good reason. In fairness, I, too, thought I could get $600/wk as a self employed person. Applied. Award - $200/wk. If you cant report truth, dont report. Its harmful to everyones health.

So...they would have to have been fired or let go first. that's on the owner, not them. And, call me crazy, but maybe pay your employees better and they'll come in?

This is shitty agitprop not journalism. Glad I stopped listening to this drivel after 2004 when you bootlickers cheered on the Iraq war.

npr is a dumpster now

sounds like she sucks, idk

They did post this. “Clarification April 21, 2020 In this audio story, as well as in a previous Web version, we do not make it clear that Sky Marietta closed her coffee shop voluntarily so that her employees would qualify for expanded unemployment benefits.”

dvijmankad themehtaphysics look how evil this is 😂

This is what socialism would create until no companies left and no more money to hand out, enter extreme poverty

Lol at posting a take like this and thinking anyone should become a contributing member

I couldnt get past the headline... looks like it belongs on fox..

Good

God forbid people don’t work and receive some form of financial aid while millionaires sit on their ass and make...millions off of exploiting thousands of people

I am so totally worried about the global barista crisis and really believe that this is a lasting problem that will sweep across the country and leave us all with no lattes, just when we need them most.

🖕🏽😎🖕🏽

If you want to know the reason I stopped donating, this kind of reporting is it.

The whole point of being able to social distance and self-quarantine is so there’s no reason to leave your house because you are okay financially. It deincentivizes the need to leave your house or risk death so drones bring owners profits while barely earning above minimum wage.

The gaping hole in this story is that the owner closed the coffee shop voluntarily so that her employees would qualify for this benefit. So...she's actually awesome.

So she laid off her employees, and then bitches about them not returning for less pay during a pandemic...

FIRST OF ALL, part of our paychecks have “unemployment insurance” withheld—we pay it—hoping we don’t need it unless there is an EMERGENCY. Secondly, the extra $600 ends after 4 months. Thirdly, $15/hour is not a real living wage especially if in-debt or without a retirement fund.

It means the coffee shop owner wasn’t paying their workers a livable wage.

Maybe they should have been paid a livingwage all along?

You can close you business for any reason (sick family member etc). Nobody can force you to stay open. She had every right to close her business for any reason she chooses.

They only qualify if they are at risk of dying from covid or have an at risk underlying issue and pay your fn employees better. Minimum wage= death

Wages are so low that the very basic virus support actually pays more than working? It's simply astonishing that this could be taken to reflect anything but the miserable life conditions of low wage earners. What has happened to NPR?

This is a demonstrable lie. I don’t know how anyone can be deluded enough to buy into NPR as a progressive voice.

why are you doing this

States will recoup any excessive payments that they have made. The do it all the time. As far as federal money is concerned it is considered earned income so you will pay taxes on any money given to you.

N'ational P'ropaganda R'adio WE TELL THE TRUTH / LETS START A CONVERSATION?

IF YOU CANT AFFORD TO PAY YOUR WORKERS A LIVING WAGE DONT OPEN A BUSINESS

Chef_Borzi

I think it's time to block NPR

if you cant afford to pay your workers a living wage, maybe you should be more responsible and don't open a business. Or better yet, go in together and open a worker-owned cooperative. Business owners are just so entitled.

NPR is far from a reliable news source these days the lying and bootlicking is BIG trash

Good. If you can't pay your employees enough to live on you don't deserve to be in business.

You ass holes know what you did.

Isn't she supposed to close because of a public health emergency requiring people not to gather in small enclosed spaces? She should be fighting for small business assistance so she doesn't have to endanger the lives of her workers and her customers to survive the crisis.

Was she also providing medical benefits? I’m going to guess not! And if they get sick who’s going to foot that bill? You really think $600 a week is going to cover it?

What happened to you?!

Reminder that even “public” radio cares about rich public more than you.

fuck a kentucky cafe owner

🗑️🗑️🗑️

Wow, with the new Right Wing talking point attack on actually helping people in need... Cannot wait for the article espousing greed amongst essential workers for wanting a decent wage to risk their and their family's lives... FOH with this bull shit!

Then maybe she should’ve paid them a living wage? Also, one store owner in Kentucky? Color me skeptical.

Then PAY MORE. fucking is literally parroting GOP bullshit.

Nice Polite Republicans with another great bit of journalism pitying the poor bosses who have to pay a living a wage now to entice employees to risk their lives working for them in a pandemic.

That's not how unemployment works. At all.

Woo, y'all made the full transition to 'National Propaganda Radio' official, huh?

NPR is corporate trash

Don't hire for your business if you can't pay your employees a living wage.

oh no how terrible now they'll all be able to stay home and not get the covids oh nooooooooo

If that’s what this business owner says then the business owner needs to pay the employees more. That’s shameful. But more accurately, it’s just not true.

She should just pull herself up by the bootstraps

This is for 4 months to help people during a pandemic. perspective.

If you can’t afford to pay your workers a living wage, you were already a failed business.

Hey NPR. You can do better.

please do a follow up interview with the employees and ask them why they don't want to expose themselves to public for less than $15 / hr

This article was a complete waste of resources to produce. I’m so glad I stopped contributing to NPR.

:

What are you doing? This is mind boggling.

you're telling me $7.50 an hour is federal minimum wage? That's a fucking joke of a wage

Dogshit “reporting” NPR. Can’t believe this is how you are spending your time during this pandemic. Charles and David Koch would be proud.

NPR is the natural consequence of letting decorum drive your narrative

I thought that paying people enough to stay at home, so that they aren't incentivized to risk their lives finding work, was precisely the point of the benefit program Why are you reporting this like it's some kind of unintended consequence?

When doing a story about 'former employees' 'collecting unemployment benefits' you should clarify that their employment was discontinued by their employer. You cannot collect unemployment compensation if you voluntarily leave your job.

It’s almost like they should fucking pay their workers a livable wage

What a garbage radio station. So glad I quit contributing to you years ago.

Bottom line - if your business model includes a non- living wage (which varies city to city) to your employees, you have a BAD model & you should NOT own a business.

I stopped listening and reading your trash, right-wing, presumptive reporting a while back. Still looks like I made the right decision.

People have multiple jobs and have to pay their rent

Maybe pay your workers a decent wage?

Blocking npr

Absolute lying hacks you are

Could it be—and stay with me here—that these employees stayed home because the money made it possible for them to choose the safe option?

'Their goal was to provide good coffee, good Internet service and some opportunity in a community that has been starved of all three.' Apparently, their goal was also to do this by paying their employees very little.

You need to explain this reporting. How is it that they can make more from home than at work? Maybe their business could have paid an actual living wage? Do you understand how UI benefits work? When will you retract the story?

Delete this stupid tweet

pay your workers more, pig

They'll have you hating the people being oppressed

Disgraceful NPR with the sugarcoat Trump defense everyday. My favorite music station kcrw airs NPR and I always turn it off, have now for years. The bias has been creeping in for a long time. I see you, we see you.

Okay maybe throw in paid sick leave and get competitive

How many people... were still going out... for coffee? All at once? 😐 I’m not convinced that she could not have kept her coffee shop open... on her own. But sure, ‘employees.’

Pretty bad!

Only some people can dream for the future, and the rest spend their money at Walmart? One can imagine that one of those 'lovely baristas', if they can cover their bills, might save some money, study, travel, or even open up their own business. Better to keep them down.

This headline reads like an example out of BigMeanInternet's latest essay

Try to learn something before you broadcast nonsense, NPR.

Did Salena Zito start writing for NPR or something? People who quit or are fired with cause aren't getting unemployment benefits.

Your own article puts the lie to this. She laid off workers, and incorrectly thinks they’ll make more. Shame on you, NPR, for spreading false information. I thought you were better but you’re just a rag tabloid now.

joke reporting NPR, you didn't even take time to find one employee to check if they were let go? Pull your heads out!

So maybe pay your workers a living wage? 🤦🏻‍♂️

Sad to here her employees are finally able to feed themselves 🙁

What the hell is this ? Go after the ones who are stealing $millions if not $billions. Get your proliorities straight.

this is completely irresponsible framing. Do better.

who the fuk goes to a cafe in the middle of a pandemic?!

Plus, the new normal: a decent minimum wage. Apparently that is what is written into the bill. Why should anyone have to work for pay that does not support them? There's no going back.

That’s not how unemployment works. She closed because she wanted. If you refuse employment when called back, you lose unemployment. Stop crying because you have been paying people the bare minimum and want to continue doing so

You are talking with no real life experience. I have 4 people furloughed. They will all be offered jobs when we can reopen. They are all collecting, we are afraid they will not come back. They can coast for 4 months like this. You are dreaming if someone will verify them rehired.

Delete this

NickASAVet You're saying you've RESEARCHED this restaurant, and discovered that people can refuse to return to work, and keep getting unemployment? The rules prohibit that.

Imagine starting a business and going through a list of overhead and operating costs to decide if you can be profitable and never once thinking to jot down 'pay employees enough to live'

Sounds like they should of been paying more then.

How little are you paying them if unemployment benefit works out to be more! Then embarrass yourself by complaining about it.

This is not how unemployment benefits work. If an employer recalls a laid off worker that person almost always has to come back because otherwise weekly benefits are forfeited.

There’s a reason I completely stopped listening to NPR: Fear and laziness has made them second-rate journalists.

do better.

🖕🖕

npr I am making a lot of donations, increasing over my normal, to help where I can. Can EASILY cancel my HoustonPubMedia donations if you keep running this junk, and divert the donation elsewhere. Don't want to but I will.

Remember when you used to be a news organization? This is below not being respectable, you're literally repeating and spreading lies. You know these people will still defund you and hate you even if you debase yourselves for them.

Pay your workers.

shame on you for this bullshit article

This is an indication that people aren't paid enough, not that unemployment benefits are too generous.

for the past twenty years i've been telling people you are garbage. you continue to prove me right. listen to and contribute to Democracy Now for true independent news.

Bullshit

This is a really irresponsible tweet. I expect better from you, NPR

Wow! Remember when NPR wasn’t a corporate garbage machine? It had integrity? It was a while back at least 6+ years ago. Take that propaganda and keep walkin’ NPR.

- give me coffee or give me death!

Uh so it's bad that they no longer have to work a shitty job for poverty wages

this is dogshit and disingenuous

this is journalistic negligence

What right wing think tank told you to report this?

That's b.s. All the restaurants are closed and servers out of work. And she should pay more.

If this was a universal payment they could work and get the supplement at the same time

Maybe she should consider paying her employees a living wage.

... Jesus Christ

Yeah the poor people getting a tiny bit more money are the problem and not the fucking government who is leaving everyone else out to dry. Nice

Is this another situation where you’re just going to leave up a very flawed story, and a misleading tweet advertising it, to get clicks?

man everyone sure is rolling in free money in the US would you care to analyze the trillions we're carrying on the books from corporate bailouts and how those compare to this egregious sculduggery?

Raising the the minimum wage would solve the problem

Why did you not bother to get her employees side of the story. They would have had to be laid off at some point to get benefits. Do better reporting NPR. You are supposed to get all sides of a story before you write a story.

NPR dabbling quite a bit in propaganda.

Employer propaganda

NPR new byline: 'We've been awful since the 1980s on your dime'

Wow NPR. Honestly didn't think you'd stoop to this but here we are

Yeah come back to work after I let you go , and risk your life for less than unemployment, with, I am certain, no health insurance, I don't think so !! This reminds me to cancel my NPR subscription.

Her story doesn't add up. Sounds like she's a bitch to work for and they're holding out for new jobs to return, so they can work for a living wage. 💁‍♀️

Maybe this should work to show that $15/hr should be the federal minimum wage

here for the ratio

You have to be fired to get unemployment-owners’ choice, not the staff’s.What’s an unemployment payment in Kentucky-did I miss this? “..in addition to state unemployment benefits,which vary widely,from a maximum of $235 per week in Mississippi to $795 per week in Massachusetts.”

So she's admitting she does not pay her employees a living wage.

Oh bullcrap! You can't collect unemployment if you refuse work! Everyone (should) know that. COVIDIOTS

This is not how unemployment works

coffee shops are stupid, I have a Mr Coffee in my kitchen. It's like going out to eat hot pockets.

This is embarrassingly poor journalism.

npr this article is trash.

$15 an hour is twice the minium wage WTF people. At that level of income you can't even afford the bootstraps.

Perhaps minimum wage should increase.

What are you doing NPR

Funny, it sure sounds to me like this woman laid off all her workers so they could take advantage of those generous benefits she now wants to decry. Of course, you'd never know this from NPR's 'journalism' in this story.

Cancelled my membership and will never be donating another used car. You can launder right-wing lies with the money the GOP send you. And good luck with that.

Personally, I think the issue highlighted here is the blanket nature of the payment. Similar to the argument against a federal $15 wage; it doesn’t account for local cost of living. You get much further on less in KY than in CA.

Maybe she should stop exploiting her workforce with starvation wages, and maybe you should stop lamenting a failure to see the death toll climb higher

NPR is and always has been propaganda disguised as being progressive - it isnt. Neither is Amy Goodman and Democracy Now. Both r rags like NY Times. Lies have gotten bigger so very easy to see

Jesus NPR. What happened to you?

This is journalistic malpractice.

Maybe she should have paid her workers more than starvation wages.

How would her employees be collecting it, if they hadn't already lost their jobs? They certainly couldn't be collecting unemployment benefits BEFORE her business closed and fired them. She underpaid people for their p/t job and she cant exploit them anymore, boofuckinghoo.

Good.

Are you the same folks who want us to believe that a tote bag is worth hundreds of dollars?

Wait, she expected her workers to get by on _how little_?! If your company can't pay more than unemployment benefits your company deserves to die.

Why is no one getting that the minimum ‘wage’ in the USA is frankly a pitiful excuse for the name! People with no job security competing for scraps - wake up guys

Hope whoever bought this paid well, but I think I'm going to move my donations directly to the local stations.

you didn't interview her employees, didn't cover the fact that it's not a single cafe but a chain, and didn't take into account that there's a fucking plague going around and if her workers are 'essential' maybe she should pay them more.

The threshold in KY hasn't even been met to open a fully staffed coffee shop. I am a bartender, I was fired Saturday for refusing to go to an in person mtg. They are giving 1 homemade mask and employees are doing unspecified jobs. No contact tracing, and KY cases are rising.

A great indictment of the abysmal Federal minimum wage

Owning the libs with anecdotal evidence that paying people properly is bad, good job NPR.

remember back when progressives cared about npr? lol

try again with that one sweetie

Hey guys, read the room. There's something off about this article.

The $600 isn't wages payout. It's (FPUC) Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation. It's $ in addition 2 ur unemployment $.The minimum wage is different state 2 state.U HAVE 2 qualify 4 unemployment. Can't sit home & collect it. Can't quit OR stay home if U can go back 2 work!

Misleading because to get any state unemployment benefit (even w/ federal bonus) you just can't sit at home, you have to demonstrate weekly that you are have applied for jobs or there are no jobs available. Also, you can't quit a job and get unemployment, so they were laid off.

'This was easily determined as a lie, because people who quit jobs don't qualify for unemployment.' Do better

Wow, nice trash, npr.

maybe she should pay them more 🤔

pay them more

Oh God. During a Pandemic how dare Americans live safely in their homes. We must sacrifice them to the coffee gods and keep the hot coffee and iced lattes pouring. Peoples coffee huts must stay open to make the owners money, what if a few Americans die 🙄-Sarcasm-

Or maybe they just want to live and not kill their family members.

good for them as they should not be risking their lives over serving coffeee...not right now. pandemic

Shame.

so she fired them and they won't come back for cheap? good

This makes no sense. Her employees can’t collect unemployment if they quit, so she’s not being honest and is buying it.

Good?

Im calling bullshit that a coffee shop cant find employees when the entire restaurant industry is unemployed rn.

that’s not even how unemployment works but go off i guess

Surprised after all the bad press/responses, NPR still has the audacity to keep this article up. Can barely believe it was published in the first place. , this is shameful.

Nice Polite Republicans

Instead of journalism, let's burn all our credibility by pushing a right wing talking point with zero fact checks. That should work well.

Sounds like Kentucky better learn to compete with higher wages if they want to pull people back to a dangerous, public-facing job.

If this isn’t a sign that minimum wage needs to rise, what is?

Bullshit

GOOD.

If she can't afford to pay her employees a living wage, she shouldn't be in business.

NPR - Koch industry approved!

I think that Marietta has an agenda & could stay open if she wanted to.

So, this bullshit article is still up 16 hours later.

Thank god she paid them shit wages to begin with or else her workers would still be risking death to line her pockets!

I can’t believe this bogus story is still up

Why is any of this framed as a bad thing

What the hell are you doing, NPR.

I live in Kentucky. You cannot get UI if you quit your job! This is irresponsible of NPR not to disclose this. You didn’t even interview the former employees.

bullshit

fakeleftistnews DefundNPR

That’s not why she had to close.

Can the employees sue NPR for accusing them of committing unemployment fraud?

These targeted aid measures are not only always going to miss people in need, they are artificial distortions on market incentives. We need to stop treating symptoms and eliminate the disease of wage slavery that is at the root of all this. Allow me to explain 👇

Maybe they are staying home to avoid getting sick!

They have more Harvard degrees than the median NPR listener.

then she should pay them more

As a contributing member of my local NPR station, it's disappointing to read this kind of trash from y'all. Seriously, do some work to actually talk to those involved.

NPR, this is bad. Check your facts next time.

Steady decline since bob evans left and NPR hired that doofus Steve Inskeep. Maybe hire some staff who’ve lifted something heavier than a paycheck or j school diploma in their lives. Yuck

Good. PAY YOUR WORKERS A LIVING WAGE.

so glad i stopped donating to you guys

This is a bs story. You can only collect unemployment if you lose your job. Not if you quit.

?

It’s weird that after she “lost nearly all of our revenue” it was the unemployment benefits that did her in 🤔

BULLSHIT ALERT: you can't collect unemployment if you quit! Hence, you can't choose to go on unemployment. (full disclosure - I didn't read the article yet, just really mad at the headline)

C'mom NPR, this is a bullshit story. People don't get to choose to stay home to collect unemployment and businesses don't close so that they're workers can receive unemployment. This is utter nonsense.

Yikes I'll remember this article next time someone tells me NPR is good lol

You don't qualify for unemployment benefits (even under the expanded rules) if you choose not to work.

How can they make more money staying home if it was a choice and they didn’t actually lose their job?

I call BS on this one. Do better NPR!

This tweet misses the point of this temporary, targeted stimulus entirely. It isn’t about paying people not to work, it is about putting cash into the hands of people as quickly as possible. Sure, state unemployment offices are writing the checks but it exists 2 serve other goals

NPR is dead to me.

crownofblight

She could have said no and kept the shop open and the workers wouldn’t have been eligible for unemployment

Pay your employees a living wage

They quit,I hope, because they realized that they were way underpaid and taken for a ride by their employer.

Maybe she should have paid her employees a fair, morally decent living wage. And that’s just the start of what’s wrong with your article and framing.

Good, since capitalism has utterly failed, yet again.

legalCAT10 That's bullshit, if your employer offers you a job you can't collect unemployment.

That's not even possible. People can't receive unemployment for quitting. Please do a better job of investigation before publishing.

Good. If you can't pay your employees a livable wage you shouldn't be in business

NPR is a joke.

Wouldn't be a problem if we have universal basic income

🤦‍♂️npr wyd

Had to close because her workers make more staging at home? No. The stupid cow shouldn’t be open. She should be getting these benefits too so she shoul don’t have to open during this time!

Shutter yourself

Neoliberal Pestilence Radio

This should be UBI, not means tested help. Everyone should get paid

I listened to this in am &thought, why not let these usually LOW PAID people earn some good $ during times of high unemployment? When it's safe to reopen I'm sure they'll find staff willing to work. What's the problem If cafe owner wants to stay open, she can be staff for now.

This is major journalistic malpractice.

NPR has been garbage for years.

This is a VERY bad tweet. Delete it immediately and post a proper explanation.

Goddammit, . This reporting sucks balls.

Yp

This unemployment ends after several months. Those employees will then be out of a job

That's the lefties' brain-dead plan I bet 😆, to cripple our economy even worse! MOST of America NEEDS to go back to work!!

Maybe you should get journalists that check stories instead of repeating obviously self interested lies

Did you guys figure out why she fired them in the first place?

So you can just quit your job now and collect unemployment 😂😂😂

It's safer for people to make their own coffee at home & get paid not to work. So it's good this happened

No shit? Senate republicans warned this would happen.

And?

She should have paid them more

why not lick trump's boots, NPR.

This is trash

Yes, and? Paying 7.50 and hour is unacceptable. These shops probably let staff get 50% discount on coffee and pastries as a “perk” of being underpaid. ☕️

are you serious? how do employees get benefits if they still have jobs... dig deeper NPR, you're blowing it here.

What a terrible piece of journalism. Do better. Thx.

Just a thought. Maybe she should pay them a living wage.

I think you have to be layed-off to qualify 😉

🤔🤔🤔🤔

Maybe one of your reporters could investigate how unemployment insurance actually works before interviewing fabulists.

how much does the government need to pay you before you only write good articles?

What a shitty tweet. Why do you hate working people

'close shop' is not the same as 'fire/layoff.' Did Marietta LAY OFF her baristas so that they'd qualify for benefits?

NPR is such a disgrace tbh

just from reading the headline i can tell whoever wrote this is an idiot

As a side note, I also stay the hell away from Pacifica too. They are just a feel-good jukebox for limousine liberals.

Why are you propagating this lie?

i don’t know how to tell you this but i am not donating to my local national public radio station. enjoy your millionaire money

Then she’s not paying them enough.

This is why I no longer listen to NPR.

Wait, the cafe was open for business? The workers should absolutely be at home.

Shut up

This is a pretty irresponsible headline. C’mon.

Total embarrassment

How are you so bad at this?

You need to do better

Sounds like they should be paid more

Next time, have someone who has actually collected unemployment write the article.

This article really rubbed me the wrong way. Not only the headline but what it implies. The owners acted like they closed to 'help' their employees. But in fact, one can't claim unemployment unless they are actually unemployed so...wtf ?

This is a program feature not a flaw

Instead of pointing the finger at her employees, she should pay attention that all the fingers aimed at herself instead. We have a restaurant here (with 2 locations now) that their servers would scoff at the idea of only make $15/hr. No turn over that I have seen in over 8 years.

Calling BS -- not how unemployment works. What a ridiculous take.

Where are the facts? Did you talk to actual employees to verify any of this? Do you understand that unemployment eligibility doesn't works like this? Did you forget to mention that frontline workers can get exposed to COVID-19 which can be deadly. FactsMatter

This is such a terrible headline. Ridiculous. You can't get unemployment if you quit. Totally misleading headline

This is embarrassingly bad journalism. EMBARRASSINGLY. I'm having that thing where you watch someone in a movie humiliate themselves and you have to leave the room because it's too painful? Picture me hiding in the hall bc this is painfully revealing of incompetence.

You can’t make this shit up🤬kinda like what BernieSanders said in 2016 2020 meanwhile SpeakerPelosi live from her 24,000 fridge not a restaurant fridge her home kitchen! Cali’s in homeless epidemic GavinNewsom talking bout 4000 beds when we have over 150,000 homeless sunny

Please retract this irresponsibly reported story

Its really sad watching the credibility of plummet

Good, she shouldnt be open during a pandemic. Thats the point.

horsepucky

This is a good thing tho. Non essential businesses are supposed to be closed. And if her business is closed and has no income I'm m pretty sure that means she gets to stay home and make money too. Why risk any of those lives for a small cafe?

NPR what the fuck

BurnettCynthia We're still in lockdown so this is way premature. It's the stay at home order that's causing your employees to stay DUHF home.

Good old NPR. Shouldn’t you be busy writing ad copy for Monsanto or ExxonMobil? 🙄

Fuck offfffffffffffffffffffffffffff what a terrible article. Interview the employees making seven bucks an hour.

I call bullsh*t. Can’t get UI if you haven’t been let go.

Cool, now interview the workers.

People are only eligible for unemployment if they’re fired. This is fake news.

Americans sure love to make people suffer and make the lives of the poor just miserable enough. Backwards.

Congrats on this great story about how Ivy Leaguers are incapable of running a business, but it doesn't matter because they can work the system, get on NPR and end up on top anyway.

This is at best inadequate, then ignorant, then outright deceptive.

You cannot collect unemployment benefits voluntarily. You must have a reduction in hours, or be furloughed or fired. If you quit, you do NOT receive benefits. This is an extremely misleading headline and article. Do better.

Sounds like that coffee shop owner should be paying a living wage.

THIS IS NOT HOW UNEMPLOYMENT WORKS. What is this, FoxNews?

Shut up, thanks

Talk to the workers

Maybe pay your people a living wage or not run a business. The argument is coming but just because you depend on first time job place entrants, doesn't mean you pay them dirt.

Headline is the WRONG ANGLE. You're Highlighting the suffering of 1 business owner, while not highlighting the suffering of all minimum wage employees limited To 'PART-Time' so they don't get benefits. Also this makes it look like the Gov shouldn’t Even help the few getting it.

Capitalism

Then pay a living wage and maybe you won't have to close. Didn't see that your offered medical benefits either for when they get sick. Stop asking people to work just for the benefit of working. We need to live too

LOL. Totally predictable outcome. Good luck reopening non-essential businesses whose low wage workers had gotten laid off due to the pandemic. The pieces of shit in congress didn't even include essential workers in the $600/wk bonus. Not even $1 hazard pay. Screw them all.

Or perhaps they did not want to risk catching an incurable disease that could kill them? 🤔🤔🤔 This article is ludicrous.

Let's be honest here. Had it not been for the GOP holding back wages for decades, workers today would be making AT LEAST 16 dollars an hour. This Kentucky cafe tyrant is mad because his slaves finally get a taste of HUMANE wage levels! And once they get a taste of freedom....

Lol y'all dipshits

Well. NPR. It’s been nice.

jesus christ eat shit

Uhm, she doesn’t have to lay them off, if they don’t want to work they can quit, Why would she lay them off if she had work for them to do?

This is a big mess. The headline. The article. Mess.

Exactly what we wanted. We are paying people to stay home.

'A Kentucky cafe owner says she's had to close because her workers make more staying home.' It's THEIR fault you treated them like indentured servants? F*CK OFF, Kentucky cafe owner!

Liberals need to stop paying attention to NPR. Straight up right wing lies here.

This is dogshit bruh

I've always been an advocate for publicly funded news and such, but if this is what you're gonna do, I propose diverting NPR funds to the post office

That cafes website is sketchy as shit.

How have you not deleted this

What the fuck is this?

if your business model didn’t suck!👀 Starbucks stays open so could you if you did better from the beginning fuck companies and working for pennies and exposing ourselves to the virus Nobody cares about your business since it’s apparent you can’t afford to take care of employees

NPR is taking Koch money now, right? And it shows.

Then I guess more people then just TulsiGabbard and a handful of others need to get to work getting REAL small businesses relief rather then blaming the employees for doing their civic duty by self quarantining in a pandemic.

Even NPR is punching down nowadays

So, cafe isn’t paying their employees a living wage and now they blame the government for making those workers are making a living wage?

NPR jumps the shark. What a joke.

Cool way to prime the pump for people to accept that better things aren’t possible! Luv 2 manufacture that sweet sweet consent

I cannot believe you haven’t taken this crap down.

So she gave up the stability of a job for 16 weeks of unemployment 🤔. This is either underreporting or a 16 year old. Plus I thought you couldn't put in an unemployment claim if you quit your job?

Sooooo is no one gonna mention that employees can’t choose to quit their job and collect unemployment? This pushes a decades old anti welfare talking point without any integrity.

How is HorsleyScott able to write this garbage?

Yeah Big Fan here, but you need to fix this one. Thats not how UI works. They can file false claims I guess, but thats just fraud.,

So the coffee shop didn’t offer a living wage? The outrage should be exploiting workers with minimum wage.

A great reality check for the cafe owner. Raise your minimum wage to a living wage.

Who I feel bad for is those deemed essential and are working front lines earning less while putting themselves at risk - when if they get a “generous” bonus it is $40-80 a week.

This is a joke right? Are people actually seeing these checks yet? Because no one I know in NC has received theirs.

Um...she fired her workers. How is it their fault they are going to go collect UI. Also, as UI is usually based on a percentage of what you normally earned, how many will actually get $600 a week? Do Better!

maybe she should pay a decent wage then

Do better npr 📻⤵️🗑

Worst headline ever, until tomorrow.

Embarrassing reporting without any sense of who is vulnerable during this crisis.

Most importantly, the $600 allows them to stay SAFELY AT HOME instead of being exposed to a deadly virus to benefit a cafe owner. Get real.

?

Lol, neoliberalism is the gift that keeps on giving... until we all die that is

We shouldn’t forget that almost all that money will be spent to keep the economy going.

National Pentagon Radio.

Maybe they didn't want to risk death to serve lattes? Maybe they don't have healthcare if they are working at a cafe?

The minimum wage should be $15 dollars an hour anyway. So yeah. ✌🏽

That’s stupid it’s a temporary benefit 🤷🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

😒😒😒😒

Idiotic horse hockey

It sounds like they didn't have a viable business

What awful framing

Have you considered that perhaps the problem is that the federal minimum wage is half of $15 an hour?

thetrillbillies are these the same dorks you were talking about a couple episodes back with the sidewalk chalk?

It’s disqualifying to do what she said she did: comply with her employees’ request to be laid off. If she colluded, the employees cannot collect and she will be in legal trouble. Did HorsleyScott ask her about that?

So I guess she hasn’t notice yet that her customers are staying home, too?

did you consider that maybe, also, this is great evidence that the federal minimum wage is slave wages, and that businesses that can't survive paying someone starvation pay perhaps don't DESERVE to exist?

2/2 employees that much when, as this story illustrates, the employer can’t afford it? I’m sure Bernie has addressed this question. I appreciate your answers.

The employer says? What do the employees say?

Stop being a conservative mouthpiece

NPR has lost their minds pushing right-wing talking points. But this framing is not only bad journalism, it's outright lying.

I truly sympathize with the predicament of the coffeehouse owner as well as its employees. Question: When someone like Bernie Sanders calls for a federal minimum wage of $15/hour, how does he propose that a small-business owner, such as the KY cafe owner, pay its 1/2

Then the real story is the bitch needs to pay her people better

Good lord, —it’s clearly a lie bc that’s not how any of this works. Do better.

You don’t have to be laid off the get PUA and the $600 kicker.

You suck so bad

l dont feel a bit sorry for her.

Wingnut myth.

A business plan that doesn’t include paying your workers a decent wage is a failed business plan.

I guess that Koch money really does work. What an absurd headline

lying bullshit article.

Just stop.

What in the actual fuck kind of reporting is this? Did someone from Fox get lost in your offices?

What happened to the NPR is used to know and love?

That was a stupid idea. It's counteracting the PPP.

So does she get help from govt b/c of closing?

She can direct her ire to elected officials to increase the minimum wage in her state, to the benefit of ALL workers.

Ah, this makes sense: I'm getting a VERY strong JD Vance Hillbilly Elegy vibe from this woman:

its just the free market at work. if you want people to work you gotta pay them

Republican Radio

hi npr ah, really? y'all might wanna reconsider that framing

gee if only the point was to get people to stay home this would be pretty effective

People in ohio still haven't gotten the 600 not to mention unemployment phone lines are busy 24/7. sooo fuck off?

But did you die?

SHE FIRED THEM! She had to close because she fired all her staff!

Omg! The indentured servants are being paid a fair wage! It's the end of the world as we know it! FightFor15

This is terrible. Why didn't you interview any of the staff?

I’m hearing this a lot.

A guy in this thread just debunked this whole thing with accountable proof what the hell kind of jurnalism is this? Hire that guy or fire the editor I’ve never even read npr before today and this is the last time

I will never forgive NPR for their war mongering during the Iraq war. Now they want to get even more Americans killed. What vermin.

Cool, now do one about how much the government gave corporations

I’ve been to Harlan, Ky and there is no way that coffee shop was making enough money doing curbside service to justify their costs of staying open!! Nice Republican spin there Do better!

come on, NPR, you're better than this.

NPR this headline is irresponsible - employed workers do not qualify for unemployment. If this cafe owner employs them still, then her workers do not qualify for unemployment insurance.

Another reason not to live in Kentucky! GOPCorruptionOverCountry GOPTaxScam VoteBlueToSaveAmerica

Time to start paying staff a living wage, eh?

I’m sure they’d rather not be stuck in the house with a deadly virus on their heels. I think they’d rather be working ....btw $600 will run out a

NPR retract this right wing propaganda.

Perhaps, and I’m just spitballing here, it is the minimum wage that should be adjusted.

Fuck yeah!

If she can't afford to pay a living wage to begin with, she doesn't deserve to be in business. Glad she closed.

This shit is full of nonsense. States are doing all they can to avoid paying unemployment. I had my entire job reclassified to be 'essential' to meet SBA terms and was 'offered' the chance to go back to work. Had no real choice but to take it.

This is irresponsible reporting. Shame on you, NPR.

Hilarious way to frame a story that is just about a cafe owner underpaying employees.

I have no idea why LindseyGrahamSC insists that people should be happy with less than $600/week to live on. RaiseTheWage

jaketapper Maybe they should have paid their employees more. Zero sympathy

You call this journalism?

Hah maybe if they paid their workers a living wage this wouldn't happen

This makes no sense. If workers decline to work because they’d rather get unemployment - or even if they’re worried they’ll get sick - they are ineligible for UC. Y’all sound like Fox News.

This is why I can’t even turn on NPR anymore.

I remember why I don't listen to NPR anymore.

The tyrannical middle class is getting a comeuppance.

Garbage.

People are making a good point NPR...the shop owner can tell the unemployment office that the employees were not fired. They will then get sent back to work. This article is a sham or incompetence.

Uh, this is just propaganda. That's not at all why the cafe owner closed. Isn't this why you have a public editor ? kellymcb you'd put your name on this?

Complain if they do. Complain if they don’t.

This doesn't even make sense, she'd have to fire the workers for them to be able to collect unemployment. They can't just quit.

the framing on this is disgust

100% true...

Even accepting this narrative as face value... good! Many portions of the CARES Act directly provide for people to be able to stay home and not join the ranks of the infected. That this unemployment provision supports that same purpose *indirectly* is hardly a critique.

This is total BS In order to collect Unemployment benefits you have to either have been laid off, furloughed or fired You cannot collect a dime if you voluntarily leave a job

Why are you all promoting the Presidenrs narrative? This is verbatim what Lindsey Graham’s raggedy self said.

🙄

That cafe owner should pay her employees a living wage.

I’m sorry but two people can run a coffee shop in Harlan KY. Universal basic income is what’s needed to save Main Street KY. Not minimum wage jobs. Do better NPR. This is an outlier.

If they quit, she can fight it. If this is just a temporary shut down, she should be happy that her workers are taken care of and coming back eventually. She can also apply for a forgivable loan. This story is BS.

The good thing about NPR is there is always a very good reason not to give them a single cent.

Did she choose to close? I don’t think you can get the benefit if you quit or choose not to go to work?

So you're saying that these people don't want to risk death for seven dollars an hour?! THOSE MONSTERS!

You would think capitalism would not leave workers so poor that welfare is better. I guess capitalism isn’t so great

Her employees didn’t show up to work b/c there is a pandemic. And yes, if you want your employees to work during pandemic you need to pay them more than minimum wage. It’s called hazard pay.

I don't get the thesis, here, NPR. Am I supposed to feel BAD for the owner who can only stay in business because she pays poverty wages? I mean, what does that say about the quality of the cafe?

Everything about this article is a good thing. Let them stay home and stay safe. Shop owners that need to close should get rent relief. Then open back up when it’s safe.

that's a pretty shitty take NPR. Very disappointed.

This is only for 4 months. It is just one part of the first stimulus package! If the workers quit, then don't hire them back!

Good. Pay them a living wage.

This story involves both a cafe owner and a journalist who don't understand how Unemployment works, or social distancing for that matter. We're still in the middle of a crisis.

👎

cmon, npr CMON!!!!!!

Hey, this is a blatant lie and you should be ashamed for posting easily refutable lies. You can't get unemployment if you quit. You are personally going to get people killed from uninformed push back. You, personally will have blood on your hands.

I think that says more about your cafe than it does the workers. Emergency safety net income is more than your peanut wages.

I guess he should pay his employees more.

I would expect to see this on FoxNews . Totally irresponsible reporting.

What is wrong with you? You know that this creates the totally inaccurate impression that her workers quit so they could stay home and collect benefits, which is NOT how it works. Shame on you.

Hey NPR, this is shit reporting because you’re only eligible for UI if you’ve been laid off... if you just quit you’re not eligible for unemployment. So they’d be paid $0 to stay home. That doesn’t invalidate the need to pay people a living wage in the first place.

christymaginn We need some inflation in the economy now, stat! Inflation is the best thing that can happen right now!

Why doesn't she hire some of these shitwits that are protesting. She's full of shit.

you've sunken to smearing egg on your own face.

This was me as a barista as well.

You can NOT quit your job then receive unemployment YOU HAVE TO BE LAID OFF! This is a news network airing propaganda to placate right wing fanatics Our time is defined by cowardice NPR failed in their obligations because Mitt attacked big bird & the Kochs dangle dollars

Guess they should pay their employees more!

Shameful reporting

you know what would be good if it closed?

Are we supposed to be mad at the government for paying unemployment benefits that actually almost meet the cost of living? Or are we supposed to be mad at the coffee shop owner who is incapable of paying her employees a living wage? LivingWage

Nice Polite Republicans

maybe they should actually pay their employees a living wage. food for thought...

Duh! Didn’t the wise folks in our Congress see that coming? I sure did.

Gee, irresponsible reporting from an American media outlet. WATFO, huh?

NPR - National Plutocrat Radio 🤑 Any working class person still donating to NPR is getting played.

NPR, SHAME ON YOU for pushing the ridiculous right-wing narrative that nobody should ever receive govt assistance becuz it'll 'disincentivize' them from working. Were you also so opposed to the massive bailouts Wall St received in 2009? Betting not. Sod off!!

sooooo y’all gonna correct the record on this or what?

Business owners should be abolished and people should seize the means of production? Or business owners should be paid the same as their workers 😉 that's what I learned from this shitty reporting.

If you can't afford to pay your workers a livable wage, you don't deserve to be in business.

Bullshit

Wow npr thanks for pushing a shitty right wing narrative! 👍

this is how you report now? Didn't realize you were bought out by the far right. I'm really disappointed. You were the last fair, balanced news outlet in America but I guess that had to end.

Get bent - this is a garbage story.

She pays her workers less than $15 hourly? That’s horrible.

Fix this. The owner chose to close. 'But even though she had customers, Marietta reluctantly decided to close the coffee shop just over a week ago.' People who refuse work don't get unemployment.

I wonder what those employees had to say about being able to purchase food despite being laid off. It's too bad you decided not to interview any of them to find out how these provisions impacted their lives.

maybe these employers ought to have paid a living wage to begin with

NPR!? National Propaganda Channle.. Who would listen to tax payer paid radio hosts?

Sounds like they should've been paying their employees more. Also, this isn't how unemployment works.

That store owner is so close....

Guys I have misplaced a giant dollar-sign bag filled with 1 million dollars. Could really use your help with some publicity to get it back. Please don’t ask anybody but me for details.

Interview some of the workers you rubes.

You can’t just quit and file for unemployment benefits. Stop the distortion!

why would u even write it like that? who is that supposed to appeal to?

Here in Florida state has so far paid to about 14.2% of what they call unique unemployment claims According to captions on WRDQ (free to air channel 27.1). This is all designed to fail.

Hey, did y'all consider talking to, like, the workers?

Maybe you need to raise your wages !

A better title for this might be: exploited workers living on razors edge finally get a brief respite.

The federal UI bonus isn't the reason she closed. 'Asking to be laid off' and then collecting UI sounds fraudulent unless layoffs were coming anyway. And if she wanted to stay open, I'm sure she could have replaced these people with unemployed persons who weren't eligible for UI.

Woowwww I can't believe this article is still up.

That's BS - to collect unemployment, you have to verify that you haven't turned down an offer of work. Not volunteering to return to a restaurant job where you'll be exposed to a potentially deadly virus, however, seems legit.

Npr actively spreading disinformation and rw talking points here The question is why Why are you doing this ?

This framing is ludicrous.

If you can’t pay your workers $15/hr, that’s on you

The federal minimum wage is not a living wage. Let’s see this cafe owner, or this NPR reporter, live a year on the minimum wage.

This is a terrible post. You should feel shame.

Try to file for unemployment right now fam Just try

I don’t understand the point of NPR anymore.

Hey fuck you

I love seeing you get roasted. NPR is such garbage now. Seriously if anyone is still donating to you they’re nuts. I can barely listen to my local kcrw or KPCC anymore because NPR is so awful.

Maybe she should pay her workers better and they'd stick around

You don't get unemployment if you quit, she would had to have closed down or laid people off first. Why is NPR either lying or uncritically repeating a lie?

What? Happened to my tweet?

Oh FFS.

You should do a story on causation regarding the relationship between terrible articles like this and NPR's increasing irrelevance.

Gosh, it's almost as if they're.... INCENTIVIZING PEOPLE NOT TO GO OUT DURING A PANDEMIC SPREAD BY PEOPLE NOT STAYING HOME.

Harvard tech entrepreneurs don't get any mercy from me, foh. PAY A LIVING WAGE.

Weird, maybe the minimum wage should like, I don't know, go up?

Absurdly dishonest

I would say she's fibbing. The additional $600 has not started yet. This is the first week they may be getting the additional funds.

Disgraceful reporting!

i thought a pandemic was scary, but a living wage?!?

This is Trump Republican propaganda. There's no other reason to print this garbage. Disappointing NPR. 🤢🤑💀 You are muted now.

🖕

“Had to close” is a lie as stated in this “clarification”

she should try paying her workers enough for them to live on

Boy is your math off!

Can we stop pretending NPR was anything other than Elite Propaganda? And only pathetic liberals listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

Well, this isn’t the full story. If there is work and the worker says they are not available for work the unemployment benefits stop. Wow 7.50 a hour big bucks. !! Sounds like a selfish employer. But, it really doesn’t matter if the business stays open if all employees die!

delete your account

Ahhh, doing a fault of my own to get unemployed through no fault of my own

'Cafe owner pays shit wages.'

Wow NPR are you really shaming wage workers for taking unemployment and not risking their lives for $7 and not this evil employer who won't pay her worker's a living wage. WTF is wrong with you.

'Karen is mad that the employees she fired won't come crawling back. ' Fixed it for you. How about some stories featuring the things people who are getting equivalent of 15 are able to do now that privation isn't hanging over their heads every single day?

people who quit aren't qualified for unemployment. people who are laid off are. this cafe owner? it's not adding up.

nice of her to fire her employees so they would even be eligible in the first place, thanks for the great reporting

This is example 2,483 of why I will never give NPR or any of their affiliate stations one cent.

This is an embarassingly misleading lead. You have to be fired to collect unemployment.

So you're saying it's too bad if they raise the minimum wage. You are trash.

“Look, I don’t understand why they’re not willing to risk getting the ‘rona from customers for minimum wage while I take home the profit.”

🖕

NPR is startled to discover that the service industry is exploitative.

This is why I use NPR to put myself to sleep at night.

More proof that NPR is owned by Sinclair

This is a shit article.

Maybe that Kentucky Cafe owner should have paid her workers enough to survive. You cannot subsidize your business with the wallets of your employees.

Is this responsible journalism?

It took my son four weeks to get approved for UI. They make sure you are eligible. People called NY UI line 100s of times a day to speak to someone to complete their application all while they went broke and families went hungry. Folks are afraid. Don't lie. People r hurting.

Then she should pay her workers more. This is literally how 'the market' is supposed to work.

I’ve worked in coffee shops. The owner should be able to make drinks. Scale back on food for efficiency. Ive been to coffee shops that have one person working.

I will not be donating to NPR.

Ok so this is straight-up Right-wing propaganda

This isn’t a small business, it’s just one of the business’s owned by the Harvard educated owners. Why is NPR committed to far right propaganda?

When that’s too much money maybe your whole economic system is screwed up

This is lazy bullshit journalism and as a news resource with such a wide audience you should be ashamed to peddle this ridiculous story as anything close to an accurate representation of Covid-19 effects.

I mean, employers like to say 'if you don't like your pay, quit.' And when they go somewhere else that literally gives them the bare minimum to survive, they flip. We're not your indentured servants. That's on you. FightFor15

This. Is. Garbage.

Because maybe we need a higher minimum wage?

If anyone's awake over there, this tweet should be deleted, and this editor let go. Don't worry, they'll get unemployment, I'm sure

If she laid them off when she wanted to stay open because they make more money at home isn’t she enabling fraud

Absolute load of bullshit

She should be ashamed that she pays her employees crap wages!

It never occurred to him to pay the workers a living wage.

This headline is so fucking irresponsible

Interview the workers---another possible motivation is 'can afford to stay home and not expose themselves to potentially fatal disease.'

Out of curiosity, what are the cafe's expenses when the store is closed? What does it cost to operate the business when there's no business?

I pray that u get defunded

Neoliberal Propoganda Radio

Has she considered the workers may not want to die from or spread a deadly virus?

This article could have easily come from Fox News or Breitbart

Let's pretend that their job is the same as before. Certainly no increased risk associated with working with the public or anything

How is this not lying? If she is a business owner she should know how unemployment works.

that's why UBI is better solution

misleading headline. the employees can’t collect unemployment if they quit with no cause. they’re staying home bc of the pandemic. weird and dangerous to spin a story like this into “lazy employees collecting unemployment”

Wow, sounds like they should've been paying their staff more. ¯\\_(ツ)_/ ¯

. why oh why would you do this? Like tweeting Cheeto quotes without fact-check.

The fact that there’s been no follow up on this travesty of reporting is redonk

This is embarrassing, NPR.

docrocktex26 This headline is a lie. The cafe owner voluntarily closed since unemployment pays more than she pays her workers. I work with business owners who are angry because Trump pitted them against unemployment to compete for workers with a short window to convert PPP loans to grants.

Yeah, no

docrocktex26 They are supposed to stay home and was she still going to pay them?

docrocktex26 This claim is dubious, and even if true, the benefit is temporary. Maybe her workers are afraid to risk coming back? Did they get interviews?

This is shameful journalistic malpractice. I'll refer people to it when I want to describe NPR's politics succinctly.

I'm sorry HorsleyScott, but this is a bad piece that seems to not actually show good journalistic practices. Did anyone interview the Cafe owner's employees? You only get unemployment if you were let go (or your hours got reduced), so there is a logical issue here as well...

Do better NPR

Maybe she should pay her workers a living wage and solve her labor shortage issues. I'm sure there are plenty of unemployed people who want to work 💯

docrocktex26 That just shows that most people don't get paid a living wage.

Can’t Let It Go!

I'm usually pretty satisfied by NPR's reporting, but recently, and especially during this crisis, your articles have begun to have a much greater anti-worker spin to them

Guess you’ve never heard the phrase “freedom from work, gives you the freedom to work.”

She had to close because they pay garbage wages

This is pathetic

This story leaves out the very relevant fact that the owners chose to furlough their employees. This is terrible journalism and you deserve the dragging you're getting for it.

Did you read your own story? She was GOING TO LAY THEM OFF ANYWAY. Great way to make the tweet about how she had to close supposedly because their lazy butts wanted to stay home making sweet barely above the poverty line 4 MONTHS of unemployment..

Sounds like you didn’t do a great job reporting on this!

WTH? They are supposed to be closed anyway. And if she can't afford to pay a living wage?

Raise the minimum wage.

Retract this

This is missing all sorts of context, and I didn't even bother clicking on the article.

I can guess how the interview went.

Very sad to see NPR running with this uncritical right wing bullshit. Does Lindsey Graham work for NPR or vice versa?

Sounds like she should pay her workers more

npr does some good work but articles like this prove that at some level your journalism is nothing but being the capitalist lapdogs to the powerful.

Sounds to me like the problem is that essential workers are not being paid enough. This could be solved if a higher minimum wage was set, at least for that sector.

jaketapper It isn’t permanent people! Sheesh

jaketapper Then... they weren’t being paid enough to begin with, AND Going for coffee ISNT essential!!

NPR y’all are a bunch of freaks. This headline stinks

Nationalist Propaganda Rag

I'd just like to offer a big welcome to everyone just now learning that NPR is politely Center Right.

Wtf really? After what happened in 2016 yall STILL pretending to be naive. They cant get benefits if the business is open. This is antiworker PROPAGANDA.

In These Uncertain Times, it's good to know NPR will continue to deliver mediocre journalism-lite that entirely misses the bigger picture.

NPR- Fox News for even bigger assholes

SEIZE THE MEANS OF NPR PRODUCTION

Employers are NOT your owners.... You don't have to risk your life for THEIR benefit.... PERIOD

This doesn’t at all sound like obvious bullshit someone heard on Fox News & is now telling everyone who’ll listen as if it’s true. Congrats.

This is completely irresponsible journalism. That is NOT how UI works, and you should know better than to publish this bullshit.

Do better,

That’s not how that works, stupid

Isn’t the point of the government payments to get people in low-wage jobs with no time off and healthcare to stay home? Sounds like an example that this worked!

airbagmoments What? npr getting ratioed for being right wing propagandists? No waaaaaay!

maybe she should have paid workers a living wage then? this is just unethical journalism in a time where people really can't risk misinformation, no thanks

Such an embarrassing excuse for journalism.

NPR is no better than CNN

That's not how any of this works you hack. HorsleyScott

Well first off, they wouldn't be elligible for the 600 dollars if she hadn't first furloughed them due to COVID 19. AND if she reopened and offered to rehire them, they'd also no longer be elligible for the 600 dollars. It's not difficult to research how this actually works.

If it's unemployment, would the employees have to been let go before they collect? Something is off with this

Boo hoo

She had to lay off or cut her employee's hours in order for them to qualify for that federal assistance, which seems like an important qualifier that is necessary to include here.

NPR what is this bullshit. You only get UI if you are laid off. Not quit or refuse to work. Why would you even print this?

This is right wing propaganda

How about interview the workers instead of the owners, npr?

But... How are they getting unemployment if they weren’t laid off?

Who wrote this trash

good for the workers!

It's true, people would rather work but it's hard to justify that if you can make more $$$ not working at least temporarily.

Fuck NPR.

Fucking really, NPR?

Maybe if ALL employers paid their employees a decent living wage, they'd keep their workers around longer. Business owners can certainly afford to do so, after their bills are paid...they simply choose not to.

Oh please. Anyone can say anything they want. That's not how unemployment works and anyone with a tangential grasp of reality knows that.

Omg. Their tech company was acquired and they blew the money buying a third coffee shop? These people are trash.

And yet some reporter gets paid to carry this half-chewed misinformation in their crop till they can puke it back up on the airwaves.

Retract the story

National Petroleum Radio Now what will you do Bailouts for tech millionaires including these yuppies

NPR should fire this hack. This report wouldn’t pass muster at Faux News.

What BS. You can’t quit and collect unemployment. NPR - how can you not know this? Or you just don’t care about facts?

Good. That's the entire fucking point during a pandemic. He should be paying more to begin with.

you can ONLY collect unemployment if you are laid off/let go due to illness..aka reasons beyond your control..so IF they were NOT laid off..how did they get unemployment?..or did she temporary lay them off and they decided NOT to come back?..they could loose benefits for refusal

Good they need to stay home.. She better start an online business and adapt

I don't feel bad for people unwilling to pay their workers a living wage.

Ooof, NPR. Do better journalism.

Just terrible reporting, NPR.

Sounds like she should pay her workers more

Thank you NPR for some lovely framing of this story that would make Mitch McConnell proud

So her employees are protected, the role of government, in a pandemic. And when did coffe shops became an essential service ? Horrible headline NPR.

Who care

Bad take.

Fuck this framing

Trash story yo

jaketapper Is that a republican talking point or truth.

You really need to revise this article to make it accurate. Your credibility is on the line

C'mon guys

'They're hardworking individuals. But literally this is the best possible pay of their lives they could possibly get, to be unemployed.' How fucked up is that

Guess that tells her something about her generosity

You didn't interview any of the actual employees.

THE POLICY IS WORKING if it's keeping non-essential workers home. NPR is supporting the neoliberal trap that snares less privileged people and forces them to trade safety for livelihood. Just one of the traps that exacerbated this pandemic.

This is lazy, hack journalism. Hey tprnews is this what my corporate sponsorship is supporting? Cause it's awful.

this is embarrassing and not helpful!

👎

cool, I hope she loses it.

What a bad and misleading article

This is HORRIBLE ... What are you doing? Please delete this clickbait lie piece

Sooooo, Harvard Grad & employee of CEDIKentucky doesn’t agree with the economic development standard of $15/hour w benefits for her employees? Seems more than a little hypocritical.

Yo this tweet really sucks NPR

It’s times like this that I’m reminded that NPR is partially funded by Koch industries

Too bad, so sad. Maybe she shouldn't pay her workers starvation wages.

What the fuck are you doing...

How many people does it take to make coffee?

👎

1. Fake news. You can't get unemployment unless you got fired first for no problem of your own. 2. If cafe was so profitable, she could run it herself without exploiting workers or with fewer workers, like all other small business & restaurant owners are doing.

This is a lie. You can't just quit and get unemployment. Delete this.

Garbage.

“But even though she had customers, Marietta was reluctantly forced to close the coffee shop just over a week ago... she said her former employees can make more money staying home than they did on the job.” This is literally not how “unemployment” insurance works.

If they make more staying home then you aren't paying your staff enough. Period.

She had to close because she wasn't making more than she paid them

And of course outlets that spout conservative talking points like this (NPR!!!) never grasp that this is a sign that minimum wage is much too low.

Im curious either who took over, or who they made a deal with when their funding got cut. Im reminded of the GW era in NPR coverage when he was interfering.

Delete this and retract the broadcast story on-air. This is lazy, irresponsible journalism. You're being used, and it's pathetically easy.

I am sure it has nothing to do with the fact that unemployed people aren't going out for coffee, or that people concerned about their health are staying inside. When did you turn into state propaganda for the GOP regime?

Bad take. If the employer gives 'reasonable accommodation', employees wouldn't get UI. Kentucky's UI site, with answers following: 'Q: What if employees want to stay home because they can make more money with UI plus $600 from the federal government?

Wild that this is still up given the obvious lie it is premised on. You don't get unemployment if you quit.

I guess the workers were unworthy victims?

Did she lay her workers off prior to closing? They’re unable to collect unemployment unless they’ve been laid off...perhaps she should educate herself about how this all works

Why is a cafe still open? That’s not an essential business

Back in the 70s working was a negative return. I learned that if u pay people not to work more people will not work.

Thank you, Fox News!

This is blatantly false. Retract this now

REMINDER: the $600 Extra is ONLY until JULY ...THAT'S IT. After that people will ONLY be receiving the REGULAR Unemployment rate.

you can't get unemployment benefits if you quit a job. irresponsible headline and reporting. (and where is a quote from employees in the story saying 'they're better off?' because they're not.)

cancelnpr

This is an absolute embarrassment of a news story. I’m ashamed I ever donated to you.

Fuck NPR

National Public Ratio

More like Scott Horseshit, right?

drivel and pablum

The ratio is a little surprising but definitely deserved. The premise is nonsensical. If she fired & tried to re-hire they’re not holding out just b/c the $600. They’re likely looking for better work b/c they aren’t as hopelessly desperate & didn’t have that option before.

Wow sounds like that cafe owner should pay their employees more

Maybe it’s because they are afraid of catching the virus?!?

Delete this

Hacks.

Disincentiving work is never a good long-term strategy (for the individuals or the Federal budget & economy). Welfare kills ..

did HorsleyScott do any research on these people?

Is NPR going for hate clicks now? Maybe you could’ve interviewed ONE employee? Maybe you could’ve asked how it’s possible someone could quit their job to claim unemployment? (It’s not) Maybe we should all be asking why ppl should risk their life and health for $7.25/hr

No shit, Sherlock. Maybe she should be paying a living wage, and her employees might stick around.

You can't just claim unemployment if your employer is literally offering you unemployment.

This is a bad article and you should feel bad.

any time now, a correction should be issued...... who the hell is your overpaid editor?

Oh cool, and what did everyone else say?

If you can’t afford at least $15 hr you should rethink your business plan. GeneralStrike2020 healtcareforall

What is going on with this article, NPR? The replies have done more work on this story than you have!

If your margins keep your workers in poverty it’s sounds like your business model is garbage.

Doing the math, here...

This is one of the shittiest excuses for journalism I've ever read on NPR. If she didn't want her employees to get unemployment benefits she should've tried paying them

wow this article sucks

Delete this. The headline is misleading and perpetuates a false narrative. Do better.

Do people really think business will bounce right back after the stay-at-home orders end? The worst problem will not be low wage workers getting a small, and temporary, additional benefit.

I'm stopping my donations to you. This is atrocious.

This is slanted right and beneath you. This used to be a trusted source for news

Hmmmm...this whole thing has the vibe of one of trumps press briefings 😂

.HorsleyScott at MorningEdition doing some great Trump diner reporting here? Some questions: 1. Did you contact any of the coffeeshop employees? 2. What's the UI benefit in Kentucky? Aren't people ineligible for UI unless they are laid off(roughly)? 1/2

you people are fucking c r a v e n

Wtf kind of headline is this?

Very disappointing NPR

NPR is all in for right wing propaganda

So you’re still standing by this hack reporting? I am so genuinely disgusted.

Delete this

NPR is a fucking joke

This is fucking disgraceful reporting.

Damn maybe she should pay her employees a living wage

Are you serious with this shit

To 'quit' and still get unemployment they need to fit certain criteria... People who are validly in self quarentine or caring for a covid affected relative ARE NOT staying home 'just because the check is bigger'. This story is BS.

She's lying.

You don’t get unemployment insurance if you choose to stay home ...only if you’re laid off or furloughed.

I’m canceling my membership because of this disgusting article. How dare you pin the blame for this small business tyrant on its workers.

I’m finally on board with shutting down NPR and blacklisting all their hosts

NPR really showing their ass on being entirely funded by corporate donations. Don't pay your workers starvation wages and maybe you'll get some employees, Karen.

Npr is hot garbage

But she....laid them off already before they even knew about the $600? Also, it's $600...one time. It's not a paycheck?

Why are you framing this with right wing talking points. How much are the Kochs giving you?

Aren't you disqualified from receiving unemployment if you quit your job?

You’re all so mad. It goes against your narrative. I have a family member who runs a restaurant and told me the same thing 2 weeks ago. Said it’s worth more staying hom than going to work. Maybe due to various taxes, commute etc also as opposed to collecting. He must be lying 😂

Disappointed in you,

Um, pay your workers more.

It's hack journalism like this that led me to cancel my monthly donation.

wow, finally npr is showing their true colors!! Blue with a little bit of red showing!

duh! End CoronaFascism ReopenAmericaNow

Seriously, — this is a crap narrative to be centering at a time when I know you need resources. Just proving to this donor how irrelevant you’ve become to anyone but the elite, if you ever weren’t.

At least put in the minimum amount of effort to check out how unemployment insurance works.

lmao are you kidding me

Offering?

Poorly done reporting does the public harm, not good.

Wow, you didn’t even get the basics correct in this story. Might be time for a retraction here.

NPR licks trumps boots I am shocked

This is dishonest garbage

Not buying it! How about you don't open a business if you can't afford to pay employees proper wages & give benefits? People over profits! 🖕

Shameful “reporting”, NPR.

That's kind of the fucking point, daug

mfoxhunter

NPR has been hot garbage for a long time but this is low even for them

This piece is incorrect, as others have ably explained. Please issue a retraction / correction - on air!

Except that you can’t just quit your job to get unemployment so I call bullshit.

BadLegalTakes

How did they get unemployment if they weren't let go?

Does NPR know how UI works? Of course they do. This isn’t bad journalism, it’s deliberately misrepresented. Insanely obvious austerity propaganda, because they don’t need it to be subtle.

This is crap reporting right here NPR

Says slot about the place giving them crumbs on the dollar! Pay folks more. Btw Unemployment is TEMPORARY your workers will be back.

Headline: Cafe owner refuses to pay her employees a living wage. Loses employees to better opportunity. Fixed it for ya.

But you have to pay premiums for your healthcare now, you know, being unemployed and all.

Any time the economy turns south, a sad majority of people use that to justify not tipping. Servers survive on those tips. This isn't hard to figure out the employees' reasoning here.

What a joke

Do better NPR. You only get UI if you're laid off through no fault of your own. You can't quit to stay home and get UI, so maybe you should've talked to some of the employees in question.

Bullshit

Why isn’t there a single employee interview in this?

ok lol

Sad that I ever gave money to NPR

Close the restaurants. Take-out only.

That's not how unemployment works tho

simply Do Not Care about wealthy coffee boss

shameful but predictable trash here

This says nothing about the employees and everything about how terrible her wages are

The only effect lowering their UI payments would have is hurting the people receiving them: it would not put them back to work... So her staff is comfortable, and apparently that's a problem...

This is straight up lying lol

there's a reason i stopped donating

You can't get unemployment if u quit.

Did Murdoch buy NPR?

Liberals donating to NPR! Lol to infinity.

You should tell the story of people with essential jobs that are high risk so they can not work. Don’t qualify for unemployment. Can’t use their disability insurance. Have no income yet didn’t receive a stimulus check because last year they made too much money.

Any correction planned for this headline that asserts 'New $600 Jobless Benefit Closed Her Business'? Anybody who quits a job because they'd rather collect unemployment money does not actually qualify for unemployment.

this is disgusting, right-wing propaganda

so......you didn't interview the employees, then.

Good.

npr Come on bro

Why on Earth would you report this this way? They're staying home BECAUSE THEY MIGHT DIE OR KILL SOMEONE ELSE IF THEY GO OUTSIDE. Providing people with enough money to make the safe choice is literally the point, not a problem.

This is right wing trash.

Maybe Small Business Tyrants aren't the best source on economic hardship,guys.

Kinda looks like you guys fucked up a lot on this one

What a shit story this is

This is a lie. How did this get past the editors. UI does not cover voluntary separations.

Pssst. Raise the minimum wage

It’s the cost of living that is causing her shop to close.

Maybe the story should be about how this cafe owner pays her employees starvation wages?

Sloppy reporting ...

Lol gtfoh with that rightwing garbage. She needed a better business model in order to pay her employees a living wage.

Gee nobody saw this coming...

Uhhh

Sounds made up. I'm not even an editor. Much to think about.

bullshit republican talking points

Fix your headline, it’s inaccurate.

'Journalism'

How did they collect unemployment if she didn’t lay them off? Am I missing something?

I wonder if will ever correct the blatant errors and mishandling of journalism in this article. You guys have plenty of good content and plenty of journalist with integrity but sharing this shows that NPR can’t be trusted to give accurate unbiased information

This is not journalism, it’s simply giving someone a megaphone to spout baloney. Do better.

this sucks. thank you for reminding me why i cancelled my subscription. (which was for getting the white supremacist's viewpoint of why they beat the shit out of a minority.)

This is a complete dumpster fire of an article. Maybe they should pay their employees more and also... how did you not interview any of the employees?

GOOD. LET THEM MAKE MORE STAYING HOME AND KEEPING THEMSELVES AND OTHER PEOPLE ALIVE. WHAT IN THE GODDAMN FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? IT IS A PANDEMIC.

what an irresponsible and manipulative framing of this situation. workers are fighting to meet basic needs to be ALIVE. the implication that they are lazy scammers is just gross.

What the hell? Has NPR hired the NYT's headline writers?

Get fucked

Are you gonna retract this story and report on the coffee shop next door? Hey Lester (MichiganWatch) if you want to know why you lost my donations - here's a good example. Michigan Radio does great work, but you still pay the national org for garbage hit pieces such as this.

Yikes NPR! This is not fundamentally sound journalism.

HorsleyScott how many employees did you interview?

Maybe this wouldn't happen if they paid people a fair wage.

NPR is garbage. you cannot get unemployment benefits unless you are laid off due to coronavirus.

Erm, why do we give more of a shit about the one lady who owns the business than the group of workers who are now able to safely quarantine like we're all supposed to?

Does she now

This take sucks yo

Yeah. Good.

+ratio

Maybe she should’ve paid better

Didn't know NPR is a Fox News outlet

Thank you Nationalist Public Radio

This is disgusting. You can't collect unemployment if you quit or turn down a job offer. There is nothing substantial in this article. just one exaulted small entrepenure's musings without any interogation. Fucking hacks.

Let me guess she'll be on Fox news talking about this people are suffering & need to make ends meet right now there's nobody wants to stay home for the rest of their life even if they are making $15 an hour I'm sure they're going to get back to work when they can when its safe

That isn't how unemployment benefits work. Your story is factually impossible to be true, more likely you interviewed one business owner who repeated to you an argument they heard on talk radio or Fox News. Then you printed it as fact with no effort to verify anything.

minimum wages should be raised, you’re right

Fault lies with a system that doesn't account for that happening. Normal unemployment is less than one's normal weekly salary - why not compensate by providing the normal weekly pay (which would cost less than an additional $600). I'm all for helping the little guy but...

, this tweet is garbage (even though the story itself offers a bit more context). Workers *who are able* to stay home are not lazy or gaming the system: THEY DON'T WANT TO RISK THEIR LIVES TO SERVE YOU COFFEE OR KEEP EMPLOYERS COMFY. livingwage stayhomepayhome

What a journalistic embarrassment this story is. Appalling.

Irresponsible single perspective reporting and zero context around the temporary nature of these benefits. Poor poor job here

NPR towing the corporate propoganda line as always.

Holy shit, who is running NPR now?!

You mean because she is still somehow open during this? Doesn’t this save her business? The money is temporary... so many questions

Oh boo hoo. Pay your workers more then. If the minimum wage isnt enough for anyone to live on during a crisis like this, how the hell is it enough for them to live on the rest of the time?

NPR I love you but this story is garbage

What an idiotic story. Workers only get that money if she let them go. If they were pinked and their job is offered back to them they lose the unemployment. Quit the BS that people have it too good on the dole.

thetrillbillies y’all know this lady?

But you stood by the mailbox waiting for your $1200. If it’s in your pocket, its good, right? Hypocrite, the underlying theme of the GOP.

Derp

Maybe she should've paid the employees a decent wage, then.

creganshaw Money comes untaxed so it's really the equivalent of a $20/hr boost on top of state benefits. A surprisingly solid alignment of incentives for a temporary emergency.

Well, so much for my lifelong dream of moving to Kentucky to become a barista for $9 an hour...

I expect better from you, This kind of reporting is beneath you.

It seems this woman is full of shit. Making a claim like this without the receipts...do better NPR.

Good! Im glad they don’t have to risk their lives for starvation wages. Also, maybe interview the employees next time?

So people will stay home

NPR is shit

Harlan KY. People on here saying she should pay them more in Harlan..dismount you’re high horses and visit Harlan. You have no idea

Good

This is an embarrassment. stop forwarding a ludicrous far right narrative. Just do 1 min of research and you can disprove this nonsense

damn sounds like she should pay her employees what they’re worth- and you should get headline writers who don’t mislead how unemployment works

And that is lost on her.

Its cuz they pay them too low to start

. remove this story NOW

Look at NPR co-signing Lindsey Graham’s incorrect statement. This straight out of movement conservatism/John Bircher ideology. Is NPR still receiving Koch money? 🤔

Why oh why do you tell such a lie? The root cause of AmericanMisery is DonaldDeath and his GrimVeeper. Put the blame where it properly belongs. Stop shilling for GOP and MAGAMorons .

So what you're saying is this cafe would literally rather shut it's doors than pay a living wage.

These people disgust me. “I have this talented barista whose best financial choice now is being unemployed!” If they’re so talented PAY 👏🏻 THEM 👏🏻 MORE 👏🏻

If you can't afford to pay a competitive living wage, you can't afford to stay in business. Sorry, lady!

Pay a living wage and this problem doesn’t exist. Simple. If your business model can’t support this you need to close shop.

This doesn't sound right, at all.

You don’t qualify for unemployment unless you’ve lost your job through no fault of your own. Her employees can’t get unemployment if they quit. So she’s lying and y’all are echoing a lie without correction. DO BETTER.

I wonder how all this will actually unfold.

I am TOTALLY calling 🐂💩!! This woman is NOTHING more than a trumper who is spreading the silent and complicit gop's talking points.

If she laid off her workers, then the problem is her fault. She let them go. If she furloughed them, the expectation would be that they get called back, and once that happens, if they refuse, they lose their UI.

NPR is earning its blue checkmark with this one...100 percent creative writing.

Y'all.

Maybe the cafe should pay people a living wage?

Lmao. Had to close because workers make more staying home.. that's rich, considering the 'source'.

What is wrong with y'all? Balance doesn't mean that one side's lies are valid because that's all they've got.

this journalism does not spark joy

Kentucky Cafe Owner™ should pay their workers more.

What kind of garbage journalism is this?

It's literally not possible for this to be true. Her workers couldn't have just 'opted into' unemployment. She isn't competing with it.

Huh. People make more on unemployment than working for your coffee stand. Sounds like a personal problem

If the cafe is open and offering employment to the employees, the employees are NOT entitled to unemployment benefits

Or...they should have been paying $15/hour. A business that cannot afford to pay it's employees a living wage is not running a successful business model and deserves to fail.

You can't get unemployment if you quit. This is horrible reporting.

Should have checked your 'sources' more carefully. Don't do what Fox News does on a regular basis.

Shorter version of headline: 'A Kentucky coffee shop owner is a liar.'

MAYBE SHE SHOULD PAY A LIVING WAGE

You don’t get unemployment for quitting your job. You only get unemployment for being laid off, furloughed, or fired. No one has quit to get the unemployment benefit.

Nice job just being mouthpieces for poor hating assholes. Gonna guess American Enterprise Institute pitches this one

Don't give money to 'Public Radio'.

Non-essential businesses being closed during a pandemic is a good thing. She could always pay hazard level wages if she really wants people to risk their lives to make coffee.

BS. Unemployment is only for people who have been laid off, fired, or furloughed. The Kentucky cafe owner closed because she's cheap, it's the only way her employees could collect unemployment. If she was paying them less than $15/hr they won't receive the max amount.

If your business model relies on paying your employees a wage below the poverty line you don't have a successful business model...

It is true that PPP and unemployment benefits are higher than what I can pay. However, if I kept my doors open on coffee shop in tourist town, I’d fave having zero sales and daily fines for being open.

Oh poor baby I guess you'll just have to take the bailout

If they quit, they don't get UI so this story is fabricated.

Terrible article. NPR should be ashamed.

A few points: - Unemployment insurance doesn’t apply to people who quit. - $600 stimulus benefit goes to everybody. - businesses that pay decent wages don’t have problem of workers not showing up to work. - if you can’t afford paying decent wages you don’t belong in business.

No need for followup questions like “if you didn’t fire them how could they file for unemployment”

still got this tweet up, huh?

Yeah, I’m gonna call this bullshit, just like your reputation has become the past couple of years.

Delete this

⭐️Process⭐️ 👉🏾Lose job 👉🏾Apply for UI 👉🏾UI 👇🏾 👉🏾VERIFIES👈🏾 with 👉🏾EMPLOYER for reason former employee listed in application 👉🏾UI approves or denies based on verification ... what is she talking about 🤦🏾‍♀️

damn seems like she should raise her wages

NPR, this makes no sense. First of all, barely anyone has gotten their 600 bucks. And wouldn't a cafe owner have to close because EVERYONE has to close? Who didn't you push back on this bizarre narrative?

The Kentucky Cafe owner must have laid the person off or they wouldn't receive UI. Why would she go back to a tenuous job that may lead to another lay off very soon. People aren't going to be rushing back to restaurants and they won't be fully staffed for a while.

can we get a fact check in here?

She is obviously lying, unless you can quit in Kentucky and still get unemployment compensation? May be she is an awful business owner, has a reputation as such in her town?

Canceling my monthly donation over this. I don’t donate to right wing talking points

The only reason a company pays minimum wage is because it's the LAW. If it weren't a LAW, the company wouldn't pay THAT MUCH. Guess it's time for $15 minimum wage, and while we're at it maybe we need a MAXIMUM Wage.

jaketapper This is incompetent journalism. Have either of you ever even applied for unemployment benefits?

You people are terrible. Can't say I am done listening and supporting because that point came several years ago, but damn you suck.

Did you know they'll make more staying home regardless? Exposing yourself to a deadly virus when you have limited health insurance benefits would wipe out whatever pathetic earnings you had and put you in the red.

This bullshit won’t stop republicans from making sure y’all get as little money as possible.

But you can’t get unemployment if you quit or refuse to find work so what is she even trying to say? Lmao.

This is a garbage piece

sounds like she deserves to close!!

Despicable lies. All restaurants are closed by the Gov in Ky

This is a bad take.

Good. Enough with workers.

Y'all didn't even bother to fact-check her claim that they're committed to paying a living wage. SPOILER: What they're paying isn't a living wage in that part of the country.

Quit uncritically reporting right-wing horseshit NPR, this is embarrassing. Also, to that coffee shop owner, if you can't afford to pay your workers a livable wage, your business is exploitative and doesn't deserve to exist.

this is... misleading at best and actively lying at worst.

turns out shes a shitty owner. tough luck

Didn't she have to fire the workers first BEFORE they could get unemployment?

Not to mention, that $600 is an INCENTIVE to stay home during the pandemic.

Maybe the answer here is just - raise the minimum wage in general?

That Kentucky business owner named McConnell?

A Kentucky cafe A single place in the USA is used as a reference of workers that don’t want to work in the middle of a pandemic... you are better than this NPR

Where's the part about how they own 3 coffee shops paid for by selling their tech firm?

Cool to see that you explained how people with jobs can apparently get the benefits. Oh wait, you didn't. You didn't mention at all about how someone who is working can suddenly get the benefits and stay at home. Why didn't you do that, since it's what your article was about?

opening up the country with safe health practices is kind of an answer

You can’t collect unemployment if you quit so my guess is she offered to keep them employed but then cut their benefits and they said no thank you. The incentive should be to stay at home so COVID-19 curve can flatten and we can all go back to work.

Kentucky. As in Mitch McConnell's Kentucky. Hmmmm 🤔

If you pay $7.50 an hour you deserve to be shuttered

This is a crazy person take. Unemployment benefits did not close her store. It’s almost like SOMEHOW not working a job for less and being exposed to the public is actually a good thing.

jaketapper Bring on the $15 minimum.

There is a REALlY concerning lack of investigation, here. I really hope someone over there looks again and updates with some of the info others have readily found that paint a fuller picture of what's going on here.

Do better.

We have an opportunity to change from a servant economy to an equitable one. So many of our conveniences and essentials are affordable to (many of) us bcuz someone is forced to work for less than a living wage. If capitalism and 'free markets' bring such disparity, count me out.

Maybe pay your employees a living wage then? WTF Also, last I checked, coffee to go isn't an essential business?

Are you doing access journalism to coffee shop owners now?

What is your problem, ? This is such a bullshit story. And you know it.

It's almost like there's a correlation between paying your employees garbage and their commitment to the company.

Someone needs to learn how to code

👎

Good. They’re safer there. And she should be paying her employees a living wage.

I was furloughed. Took a job stocking groceries. Making less than half. Denied unemployment. I would just like a portion of what they are asking.

Shame on the coffee shop owner for paying employees less than that

Sounds like she should've paid them more, then!

I worked in UI. This is almost certainly misleading. If she wasn't giving them enough hours it's possibly she effectively gave them good cause to quit. And in that case, they weren't making enough money to live working for her cafe and that isn't their fault, or the government's.

Fuck right off with this

NPR reporter is too privileged and out of touch to understand how unemployment works, gets duped.

This is some really shitty reporting. The twitter commenters are doing a better job than you.

This is gross.

If her business model is paying starvation wages, she doesn't deserve to be in business.

This is proveably false. NPR should fire anyone associated with this fake story. People cannot claim unemployment if they quit a job or refuse work while on unemployment.

Kentucky cafe owners aren't allowed to be open right now, other than maybe for takeout. and you can't get unemployment top up if you refusing to work. Doesn't NPR fact check its stories at all?

Ooof, this is bad, they can't receive unemployment unless they've been laid off, and as Parker Malloy stated, you interviewed zero employees.

this is shameful.

Did you fact check the whole can’t get unemployment unless you were fired or work had to close due to pandemic..?

Employers always always always blame the cost of labor. Always.

is she the bumhole or the latrine?

Wow NPR, what a load of shit. She CHOSE to let her employees go. That’s on her. Unemployment isn’t forever, soon enough she can rehire her employees and return to paying them minimum wage 🙄. Omg all this over an extra $600/month?! God forbid anyone gets a leg up these days.

Take down this article because it's not true. Go send the reporter and the editor for this piece off to learn how unemployment works before you let them right another article like this. you used to be better NPR, what happened?

Yeah, this story is a false right wing narrative. It is anti-worker. I am canceling my NPR membership of 30 years, effective today.

This is so anti worker I can’t handle it.

Very poor reporting to reinsert a right-wing narrative about how paying a living wage hurts business and those they employ. It’s been long debunked. You can’t get unemployment benefits if you quit. You can’t have work reqrmnts in a pandemic.

Fed unemployment is payable ONLY if ur certified Unemployed! The state labor Dept has conditions, so if laid off workers voluntarily do not work if offered work, one does not get ANY Benefits! So if Kentucky Cafe Shop is legally allowed 2 remain open the statement is untrue!

jaketapper Bullshit, she chose to close if they don't wanna work she should have fired them

They were laid off because the cafe closed, the cafe wasn't closed because they got unemployment! This isn't a chicken or egg story. It's a cause and effect. If she reopens and offers the jobs back, they lose the benefit. Maybe the issue is regular pay isn't enough!

good

pay your workers, binch

Everything about this tweet stinks to high heaven. To claim unemployment they have to be let go. Most employees working at coffee shop would barely make enough money a year to claim unemployment unless they are full time. The shop would be closed now anyway.

Narrator: That's not why she had to close.

Fuck you for running this story

Shame on you npr

Shame on you Report news not hearsay

So they get to quit, then get paid as if they lost their jobs? That's messed up.

They should get the money fromthe government AND go back to work. Everyone should get both.

My favorite line: 'But literally this is the best possible pay of their lives they could possibly get, to be unemployed.' Guys....but *literally*

guypbenson The GOP warned about this. The Democrats and media attacked them as heartless.

Shame on NPR for posting such a misleading headline. You can't quit your job and collect unemployment.

This is a really shitty, misleading tweet, . Have you turned into Fox “News”? Do better.

Not a good look npr Shoddy journalism

Bad article here. You couldn't talk to any baristas?

mfw someone talks about how liberal NPR is

Raise the wage

yeah they are supposed to stay home and the coffee place is supposed to be closed. because of the death remember?

Why did you not talk to any of the employees. Shoddy does not even begin to describe this. More like Propaganda.

Good job parroting Chamber of Commerce talking points and ignoring that these benefits can’t be accessed by people who quit. Perhaps next time it’d be better to lead with a title asking why some unemployed workers are unwilling to put their lives on the line for poverty wages?

Even if it was true (and its' not), that's more of an indictment of our ridiculously low minimum wage than anything else.

People need to rise up. People who believe in $15 an hour need to become Business owners! You can do it!

whyboris 1) That's not how unemployment works. (You can't quit, you have to be fired/laid off.) 2) Cafes and restaurants should be closed for on-premises dining anyway. 3) The minimum wage is too low for anyone to survive on those earnings.

NPR bootlickers

Lol. This is embarrassing and you should be ashamed of yourself for publishing it.

NahImSerious here we go again… Another “entrepreneur” who thinks they were offering the best job in the world...

fake shit

This is MAGA propaganda. 1) she would have had to lay them off for them to collect unemployment. 2) she and her husband could have continued to run the coffee shop. Why is she so lazy? 3) what do the former employees have to say?

NPR is NPR'ing

As long as they can get thru to unemployment. In Texas, I've been trying for over a week.

who wrote this, Lindsey Graham?

lol this is total bullshit, they wouldn't get unemployment if she kept the shop open. NPR has become conservative trash.

Good?

Then perhaps the govt should offer the states minimum wage to individual states.

Minimum wage earners live at poverty level. Shame on that Kentucky cafe owner for expecting her employees to be happy at minimum wage. $15 an hour gets you a little above poverty level. But it’s Kentucky, what do you expect!

Where’s the quote from employees? If the coffee shop went to “curbside service”, I’m guessing they didn’t continue full time hours for all their employees. Our local shop reduced hours and staff. How about a balanced articke, NPR?

breaking news: people decide that risking their lives in a fucking pandemic is worth more than $7.25

My employees I fired aren’t destitute, complains wealthy man.

yeah, put those poor people in their place, NPR! How dare WORKERS get the gall to not bow to their employers every stupid whim

'My employees aren't desperate enough to risk dying and come work for me. 😭😭😭😭'

Probably should have paid them more

Can you quit a job and draw unemployment in Kentucky? You can't do that here.

But she's wrong. They can't just stay home and collect that money. NPR knows this.

So... they’re paid a living wage instead of the below poverty stricken wage they get? Also we pay into unemployment. Bad take. And ffs, research before you do entitled takes like this:

Can you guys exist as only the Tiny Desk? Everything else can be burnt to the ground.

Have you all completely abandoned your critical thinking faculties? THAT IS NOT WHY SHE CLOSED. Yes, the federal minimum wage needs to double. No question. But forgodsake THERE IS A FUCKING PANDEMIC GOING ON HERE AND THAT IS THE CAUSE HERE, WHETHER YOU WANT TO SAY SO OR NOT.

Bullshit. I'm disappointed.

They can’t claim unemployment if they quit. Did you even bother to report on that part?

Do you feel obliged to parrot false right-wing talking points? If so, why? If not, are you just chasing a new market? And does that trouble any shred of journalistic ethic you might have? Or are you looking forward to the day you can finally go full Fox? Just curious.

who is going out for coffee during a pandemic? and why should someone risk their life to serve the idiots who do?

Everyone commenting here needs to be more understanding. Not having a low wage vulnerable worker there to make a Cappucino really strikes terror into the heart of NPR's rich liberal audience.

KSoltisAnderson Breaking news: Nasty government making it harder for local business to underpay employees. Is this situation:

LOL you can’t just opt out of not working and receive unemployment benefits. That’s a blatant lie.

I feel like the phrasing of this is twisted, all the way down to the quotes used. You can't (and don't) outright state that folks were quitting to collect unemployment, because that's not how unemployment works. This is blatant, manipulative, insidious propaganda.

Shitty cafe owner refuses to pay living wage is a better headline. Besides people can’t collect the benefit unless they’ve been already fired. dobetter

damn maybe the coffee shop should have paid its workers better wages

that cafe owner is lying and you know it but reported it anyway.

Good job promoting Lindsey Graham's pet talking point. Maybe you should focus on why this is occurring. Hint: it has to do with obscenely low minimum wage.

Don't you have to get fired for reasons beyond your control to qualify for unemployment?

This is bullshit

National Pinkerton Radio

Did you find any of her employees to talk to, or did you just credulously take her word as truth? - You can't get unemployment without getting laid off, so if they're getting UI then she laid them off. - She claims they were working safely but has that been verified?

You need to delete this story. It is reckless to both sides this argument with a one person source.

This is a misleading and bad headline and the story is also bad.

This is terrible framing . Who fed you this story?

If the owner didn't fire them then they weren't entitled to unemployment insurance in the first place. So maybe the problem is that if they didn't want to close down they shouldn't have fired their employees.

There are probably janitorial staff at hospitals putting themselves in harm’s way that are making less than people collecting unemployment under this new system. Something seems off here.

Why didn’t you interview any of the employees, current or past. Maybe they quit because they didn’t like working for her, or they found a better paying job.

The $600 is temporary. Why isn't this upfront? You repeated Lindsay Graham's talking points & didn't interview her workers for this piece. Unbalanced. Get it together . Signed, a sustaining donor.

This is the dumbest framing. You can’t collect unemployment if you quit. If she made the choice to close because she can’t pay her employees enough to live on right now, it’s great that those people will be getting enough to live on. Honestly what the fuck.

.

The thing is, you can’t get unemployment if you quit a job. So she would have had to fire her employees in order for them to even be eligible to receive UI.

$600 a week?

How dare they get a living wage!

I'm not an expert, but have you tried deleting this?

I would argue that she does not 'need to' close. I've worked cafes & coffee shops. If she & husband work for 10 hours/day, they'll be able to serve some of the health care workers, & the margin will be astounding. We are all sacrificing. Work hard, make money, it's temporary.

If you can't pay your workers properly your business shouldn't exist. Nobody owes you a living.

NPR kissing Trump/GOP ass via bad reporting in order to ensure funding?

unconscionable garbage.

jaketapper This is another reason republicans are so eager to make everyone return to work. They think we're making more money sitting home.

They are staying home because they don't want to get sick!!! NPR is a joke now!

That's not how unemployment works!!!!!!!!!

you should suffocate yourself with a tote bag

This is NOT true! Jfc what’s wrong with the media?!

Nor does this does address the fact that workers may have credible concerns about the risk of exposure to coronavirus, risking sickness and death potentially

Doot dee doot dee doot, ooh, look at me! I'm NPR and I apparently like to lie! Skippidy bop ba daaaa

“Her workers”? She doesn’t own them, especially after she has laid them off.

Wait, don't you have to be laid off (not quit, but laid off) BEFORE you're eligible for unemployment?

This...can’t happen? Unless the employer fired them? NPR just throwing out conservative talking points for the fun of it?

jaketapper I don't get it. The shop owner is upset that people aren't willing to risk their lives for minimum wage? $600 was meant to help the unemployed stimulate the economy.

That’s not how unemployment works, and you’d think a journalist could at least get a basic understanding of their subject before writing an article. NPR continues its downward slide.

Do you seriously not know how unemployment works?

This is one of the most misleading article I’ve seen come out of . You didn’t interview her employees, according to her site she laid them off, and if employees quit they don’t receive those benefits.

🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻

This piece is...destructively ill-informed, and skips basic examination of the claims made. It leaves any viewer knowing possibly LESS about how unemployment insurance works. In its current form, this should be taken down. Editors should know not to uncritically parrot bad info.

What a load of crap. C’mon HorsleyScott do you really believe a new business, under pandemic stress, closed because of no workers? Bad coffee? Probably Poor business plan? Likely Lack of customers? Surely Thought the coffee business was super easy and profitable? Priceless

I don’t feel bad for this owner

If she worked hard she wouldn't have to close.

jaketapper Owner isn’t closing bc of wages, she’s closing bc ppl do not want to die or possibly kill a loved one for a lousy 600$ a week. No one should have to place their lives in the line to go to work in the richest nation in the world. Who ever wrote this crap piece, be ashamed

This article is 🚮

Congratulations on uncritically repeating right wing propaganda. Stellar reporting here folks.

PSA: NPR is funded by the Koch brothers -- er -- brother.

What TF is wrong with you, NPR? Why don't you write instead, 'Greedy Kentucky cafe owner wants workers to put their lives at risk for minimum wage'?

jaketapper They’re also not contracting a deadly disease. Priorities, FFS.

That’s not how unemployment works - I know it, you know it, everybody knows it

Nobody is quitting their job for temporary unemployment.

jaketapper And there it’s. What price is worth 1% chance of death? With tips of course.

So sad the depths you've fallen NPR.

Way to uncritically buy the right wing framing of this.

Did you interview the baristas or just their self-interested boss? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Hey NPR, this is a real bad story based on a lie. You need to retract.

NPR is the most passive-aggressive Right wing propaganda network.

guypbenson That was exactly LindseyGrahamSC point when he said never in America have we incentivized people to not work and this is just that.

It’s not just the income. If you get sick you have no healthcare. you’re not exploiting a system that isn’t set up fairly in the first place...

NPR in the time of Trump has been a complete failure. What a disgrace

This is a bad take

Done with NPR, 100%.

Good!

You need to update this post with reality, old chaps. Her workers aren't choosing to 'stay home' and collect Unemployment. She has to furlough them - her choice.

She had another option.

Sounds like a pretty sure sign she’s underpaying her employees

jaketapper Bullshit. Any worker worth their salt wants to work. Unless unsafe to do so.

jaketapper Offering but not giving. My UI gets posted as 'hold' week after week.

This is a stupid take, truly

this doesn’t make sense... they only receive those funds if they’ve lost their jobs. you can’t just choose to stay home and collect $600. the premise of this piece is just plainly false.

Besides everything else that's wrong with this take: Yes, the idea is for people to stay home. Right now working in a cafe is a bad thing, not a good thing.

That's not how unemployment works.

This is like Koch brothers level Libertarian propaganda headline here

she should probably pay her employees better then

This is a BS tweet. They don't qualify for unemployment if they haven't been let go. Didn't expect this from NPR.

The article avoids stating this outright but this is the choice of the business owner, NOT the employees

You can’t collect unemployment if you quit your job. You have to provide proof via documentation from your employer that you’ve lost your job. You can only collect unemployment if you’ve been let go. I call b.s. on this story. And NPR your writers should know unemployment rules.

Wait, they lost their jobs or quit their jobs? This is all very confusing.

Maybe she needs to temporarily close because there is a pandemic happening and her workers shouldn’t be at work anyway

You can't get unemployment if you quit

coffee shops are not essential lmao

If you can't pay your employees a living wage you don't have a viable business.

Has she considered eating shit

You don't get UI if you quit, so this is a lie. Do better, .

If that's what she said, we should all probably just take her word for it and not question her obviously idiotic logic.

There should be a way to report them so they will get no benefits. At least I hope this shop owner will give them a bad reference))

Fake news

If the business model does not support paying employees a living wage, it is a failed model and deserves to go under.

She should imagine how awful it would be for her business if it became identified as a place linked to many infections, assuming contact tracing starts.

You can’t get that unless your laid off. You can’t just quit and get unemployment. As an “essential” worker making less than 15/hr I freaking wish I could quit and get that much. Especially considering we aren’t really essential and I’m putting my life in danger.

Delete this

Unexpected consequences. Great.

That is a feature, not a bug.

How does NPR not know how unemployment works

Good

That's a self own

You can't quit your job to go on unemployment, as this story repeatedly implies

She should be closed now. It’s safer to stay home and workers have to protect themselves.

Heard her this morning and screamed at the radio. At least it got me out of bed.

Workers deserve more than they’re being paid. This isn’t a new concept. Employers should pay the $15 minimum

In PA the employer responds to the UC request. And if there is work available the person does not get benefits.

I really liked your tweet. And Keyword_research in SEO is as important as oxygen in human living. If you want you can check my service:

Coffee shops are open during a pandemic?

Maybe she should consider increasing hourly pay for her workers. That's how supply/demand works. Maybe she's too lazy to figure out how to run a business.

If they're collecting unemployment, that means she fired them; workers don't (legally) collect unemployment by 'opting' to stay home

owned

Perhaps they’re staying home because you’re a shitty boss. Or maybe they’re staying home because they don’t want to get the virus and die. But now your employees know what you think of them. Why should they work for someone who says they’re slackers?

you can't get this money if you quit, you have to be fired. this tweet is misleading.

Why is a cafe still open?

FYI - those saying she should pay more, the median household income in Harlan, KY in 2017 was less $24,742 or less than $12/hr. I believe the minimum wage is overdue for an increase but the money has to come from somewhere. $15 won’t be worth what is is now if that’s the bottom.

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