Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration this week launched a program that gives businesses $4,000 for each new employee they hire through the end of the year.
Industry experts have mixed opinions on whether the effort will meet the need for skilled workers. Critics say companies don’t need further incentives to hire staff, and that the $50 million in federal pandemic relief funds could have been better spent elsewhere. Proponents, however, believe the program offers companies needed flexibility.
In a Wednesday press conference announcing the program, dubbed “HireNow,” Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Rosalin Acosta said she hopes companies that are struggling to find workers can hire people from different fields and use the funds to cover training and education expenses.
“The biggest complaint we hear so many times is that they can't see themselves in the jobs that are available. They don't know how to get there,” Acosta said.
Greg Beeman, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Massachusetts, said training is a significant barrier for bringing new people into the field. He believes the program can bridge that gap.
“We think it offers a real significant means to help bring new people into the construction industry, an industry that needs new talent and that offers good career opportunities,” Beeman said.
But not everyone is excited about the program. Evan Horowitz, the executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said the program seems to provide an incentive for companies to hire more people, but companies don’t need that incentive.
“There isn't a problem to be solved with getting employers to hire people. Employers are desperately trying to hire people,” Horowitz said.
Unlike other similar programs, employers are free to use the funds in whatever way they see fit, and they are not required to submit any documents detailing exactly what the funds were used for, according to the guidelines for the application process. Employers only have to prove that the employees were employed for at least 60 days and paid between $14.25 and $42.50 an hour.
Horowitz said he thinks the program could be more limiting in how companies could use the stipends to further encourage equity in hiring. But Beeman thinks this flexibility is necessary because companies could use the money in very different ways.
“Company cultures are different. Company approaches are different. Some companies have very specific niches. … I think the flexibility is a real asset to this program because it doesn't pigeonhole every employer to have to use the money in exactly the same way,” Beeman said.
Horowitz said he thinks the Baker administration should have used the funds to incentivize workers to go back to work by providing social services like childcare or reentry programs for people who have retired.
“I have a lot of respect for the way the administration pursues policy. … They’re traditionally very thoughtful about the challenge that they're identifying and the ways that they want to approach that challenge,” Horowitz said. “And I think in some ways, that's the reason this stands out.”
