“Waltham violinist Beth Welty’s income dried up in a flash … in early March. She soon joined the record-shattering number of Massachusetts workers applying for unemployment benefits,” writes Zoë Madonna in Thursday’s (5/14) Boston Globe. “Based on her role at the Springfield Symphony (the only job for which Welty receives a W-2 tax form) … Massachusetts put her annual income at slightly more than $5,000. And her unemployment benefit? Just $70 per week. ‘I make a lot more than $5,000 a year,’ Welty said…. ‘Federal statute requires unemployment claimants to exhaust their regular UI benefits before being able to collect Pandemic Unemployment Assistance,’ explained Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development Charles Pearce…. Welty … plays in small orchestras all over New England…. [For] most of her engagements … she is paid as a freelancer. [Violinist] Mark Paxson … makes most of his income through local freelance gigs and teaching. But he’s also a member of Maine’s Portland Symphony Orchestra, where he is paid as a staffer…. He found himself blocked from applying for unemployment in both Massachusetts and Maine. [On] July 31 … CARES Act assistance is set to expire.”
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