State House News Service
BOSTON — The Baker administration plans to send $500 checks to about 500,000 low-income workers throughout the state next month as it rolls out the first premium pay program of its kind in the nation, the Executive Office of Administration and Finance said.
The premium pay program was created in the $4 billion COVID-19 relief law that Gov. Charlie Baker signed in December and was initially meant to benefit low-income frontline employees who worked in person during the COVID-19 state of emergency that began in March 2020.
But despite the administration referring to the program as one that will aid "lower-wage frontline workers who put themselves at risk with admirable commitment to their communities," whether someone worked in person or remotely will have no bearing on eligibility for the initial round of $250 million in payments.
Massachusetts workers will be eligible for the payment if their 2020 income from employment was at least $12,750 (the equivalent of working 20 hours a week for 50 weeks at the 2020 minimum wage of $12.75 an hour) and their total income put them below 300% of the federal poverty level ($38,280 for a single filer). The state is using 2020 tax returns to determine eligibility. No one who received unemployment payments in 2020 will be eligible.
An Executive Office of Administration and Finance official said most people will find out that they are eligible when they get a check in the mail, but the state has also published a...
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