Income Inequality During Covid 19

This column argues that the covid 19 pandemic could have similar distributional consequences.

Income inequality during covid 19. How covid 19 is laying bare inequality. They are more likely to be low income with 47 7 percent of transgender people living below 200 percent of the official u s. Nurses and orderlies including those treating covid 19 patients are risking their lives every day for an average hourly wage of 14 25. It is now evident that both the health and economic effects of covid 19 are large and global.

Blacks and hispanics are overrepresented in occupations that make it difficult to maintain a safe distance from others and therefore present a higher risk of contracting covid 19 in the workplace. They are likelier to suffer loss of income or health care as a result of quarantines and other. By james kwak by some measures in the short term covid 19 will surely reduce inequality of wealth and probably inequality of income as well. Covid 19 is laying bare socio economic inequalities and could exacerbate them in the near future.

Poverty line compared to 28 9 percent of the general u s. Greater health risks for lower income individuals. Major epidemics in this century have raised income inequality and hurt the employment prospects of people with low educational attainment while scarcely affecting those with advanced degrees. Covid 19 will raise inequality if past pandemics are a guide.

The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer has been the story of wealth disparity for the last 50 years and the covid 19 pandemic appears set to continue the trend. As a purely mechanical matter the rich have a lot more money to lose when the stock market crashes and most sectors of the economy grind to a halt. According to research from the williams institute at ucla transgender americans are at a higher risk for covid 19 for several reasons. Considering all these factors together a worsening of income inequality along racial and ethnic lines during the covid 19 recession is expected.

Home health care workers are paid much less averaging. The virus is a risk factor particularly for those at the lower end of the income distribution who are vulnerable to the interaction of the shock with income socio economic and urban inequalities.