Alicia Munnell: How to prevent mass layoffs due to coronavirus

Alicia Munnell, head of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Discussions are afoot as a prelude for the government to possibly offer to compensate companies substantially to keep employees on their payroll — though not working — as a better alternative to laying them off and “tossing them out into the unemployment insurance line,” Alicia Munnell, Boston College management sciences professor and director of its Center for Retirement Research, tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview.

Denmark, the U.K. and other countries have such programs. Why not America, argues Munnell, who says that both conservatives and liberals favor the notion. The potential sticking point: Just how much compensation would companies receive?