If the name of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) didn’t make its purpose clear, its key sponsors spelled it out, The Washington Post reported. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) explained that the program “was designed as an alternative for unemployment and to prevent unemployment.” But a closer look at three large companies that received millions from the $517 billion program shows that some companies have not retained most of their staff on the payrolls. The Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, a luxury hotel owned by a group led by Richard Blum, a private-equity chief and the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), received $6.4 million from the PPP. The hotel has been closed and most of its hundreds of workers are unemployed and unpaid. To maintain their health insurance, workers send money back to the company. A large group of restaurant companies operating under the umbrella of Orlando, Fla.-based Earl Enterprises similarly received loans in amounts ranging from $26 million to $54 million, but in the places most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the restaurants employ only limited crews. The rest of the staff is unemployed and unpaid, employees said. The companies say that they can’t rehire many people because they can’t fully reopen properties when a government pandemic order limits guests. But their decisions to withhold the money from payroll have left employees to rely on government unemployment checks, which in some states have been difficult to obtain and, for many, will soon stop when the benefit expires. Other furloughed employees are getting kicked off company health insurance because employers are not funding their premiums. What portion of the PPP has gone to affected employees is unknown. The Trump administration has said that 51 million jobs were “supported” by the program, but a Washington Post analysis of data on 4.9 million loans shows that the Small Business Administration reported that many companies had “retained” more workers than the companies said they employed. Academic efforts to examine whether the program boosted employment have shown mixed results.
