A new study highlights the increasing rate of Black and Latinx women in California who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. According to The Mercury News, the U.S. Census Bureau data from the California Budget & Policy Center showed the disparity.
The number of Black women working in California declined by 23% between March and May, the research concluded. The rate is similar for Latinx women, who saw a 22% decrease in the workforce. For white women, employment declined by 10%.
A significant decline is especially seen in hospitality, food service and other low-paying industries where many Black and Latinx women work. Two-thirds of all the jobs lost in California during the pandemic came from those industries, The Mercury News reported.
Leah Taylor, who worked as a bartender at Oakland International Airport, is among the women who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus.
“It was super hard to afford living here when people had jobs,” Taylor told The Mercury News. “It’s a whole other level now.”
The Oakland resident, who worked as a bartender for 19 years, is worried about how she'll be able to live off of her unemployment checks. She is especially concerned about affording medication for her asthma.
“I’m really praying we can get back to work soon because I’m going to be in a terrible position if I don’t have medical coverage,” Taylor said. “I cannot be without my medicine.”
Alissa Anderson, a senior budget analyst for the Budget & Policy Center, said the pandemic amplifies "existing inequalities, especially racial and ethnic inequities."
“The impact is much greater because other data has shown us Black and Latinx families are only half as likely as white families to have savings to support themselves if they go without work for a few months,” Anderson told The Mercury News.
Anderson said Black and Latinx women are often the ones in the family that take on the burden of child care, even at the expense of other employment. She added that discrimination is also more likely to happen when employers are deciding who to lay off.
According to another study by The Washington Post, 20% of Hispanic adults and 16% of Black employees in the United States reported being laid off or furloughed during the pandemic. That's compared to 11% of white people and 12% of workers of other races.
Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, said Black and Hispanic employees are mostly working in jobs that were first hit by social distancing mandates and stay-at-home orders.
"We still have a lot of occupational segregation in this country," Shierholz told The Post. “Some of it is due to differences in educational attainment. Some of it is due to discrimination and people’s access to networks.”
Tanya Wallace-Gobern, executive director of the National Black Worker Center Project, said the coronavirus has especially impacted Black workers because of conditions that existed before the pandemic. Wallace-Gobern said some of the factors leading to the disparity include "a concentration of Black workers into low-wage jobs and a lack of access to health care, employment, housing and other basic needs."
“Black workers face a radicalized political economy in which they are exploited because of their race and their class,” Wallace-Gobern said.
