From the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/):
A new report by Director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy Valerie Wilson and Senior Economist Elise Gould explores how racial and economic inequality have left many Black workers with few good options for protecting both their health and economic well-being during the coronavirus pandemic. Persistent racial disparities in health status, access to health care, wealth, employment, wages, housing, income, and poverty all contribute to greater susceptibility to the virus—both economically and physically.
The authors explain there are three main groups of workers in the COVID-19 economy:
- Those who have lost their jobs and face economic insecurity
- Those who are essential and face health insecurity
- Those who are able to continue working from the safety of their homes. Black workers are least likely to be in that last group, with more economic and health security.
Black workers are disproportionately represented in employment in grocery, convenience, and drug stores; public transit; trucking, warehouse, and postal service; health care; and child care and social services. While, in the near term, this protects them from job loss, it exposes them to greater likelihood of contracting COVID-19 while performing their jobs. Fewer than one in five Black workers in the pre-pandemic economy were able to work from home. Read the report »
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