The pandemic points out the need for better financial support for the left-behind mainner, the report said.

A new report from the Maine Economic Policy Center shows that the coronavirus pandemic disrupts Maine’s workforce, affecting the state’s poorest and most marginalized workers, especially women and colored races. I gave it.

The additional financial burden on Maine’s most vulnerable population underscores the need for more equitable economic policies in the state, the report said.

according to Maine workAn annual report from a progressive policy research organization, the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated many of the existing inequality in the state, especially for low-skilled workers and minority communities.

James Myall, Policy Analyst Center for Economic Policy Research The report’s authors said the findings “show a general underestimation of work that may be considered important or essential, and a significant lack of workers’ power to improve workplace conditions.” Stated.

He said maine policymakers need to learn from the pandemic and the recession it caused and develop legislation that guarantees that no one will be left behind in the future.

Women suffer from minorities

The report reports that during a pandemic, women and people are disproportionately higher in high-risk “essential” industries such as health care, food manufacturing, and hospitality compared to white and male mainners. I found that I was working at. Those industries offered fewer opportunities for remote work, he said.

Maine workers who worked directly during the pandemic were 50% more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than remote workers, and black workers in Maine were more likely to be infected with the virus than white workers2. The report states that it was more than doubled.

He also said that unemployment was concentrated in low-income workers, especially women and people of color.

Nationally, one in six Latin workers and one in five black workers are home, according to David Cooper, left-hand director of economic analysis at the Washington, DC-based Institute of Economic Policy. I was able to work at. And research networks.

The number of full-time workers in the United States decreased by about 13.7 million between 2019 and 2020. Approximately 80% of these losses occurred in families under $ 50,000 a year, Cooper said in a panel discussion on Tuesday’s report.

The number of full-time white male earners decreased by 9.2% and the number of full-time white female workers decreased by 9.9%. The reductions were 13% and 13.1% for black men and women, respectively, and 16.3% and 17.4% for Hispanic or Latino men and women, respectively.

According to Cooper, the national unemployment rate is around 4% for white workers and 7% for black workers.

According to Myall, this is partly historically for women and people of color They were directed to lower-paying jobs with lower profits and irregular hours, and more people were less likely to stay in those jobs during the pandemic.

In addition, structural inequality in employment and career opportunities has increased reemployment times for women and people of color who have lost or quit their jobs.

Lack of access to affordable child care Continued to be an important barrier To get back to work for many mainners, especially women.

Pandemic restrictions, the ensuing labor crisis, and low wages for childcare workers have reduced the capacity of many day care facilities in Maine. Cost is also an issue.

Infants typically cost less than $ 1,000 a month, exceeding the 7% affordable standard recommended for an estimated 89% of families in Maine, according to the report.

By August, 25,000 mainners were absent from work due to lack of childcare. Of these, 22,000 were women.

The pandemic exposed many flaws in the state and national economic systems, but the results were not unexpected, Myall said in a statement.

“”Problems such as lack of workforce, low wages and lack of access to paid leave have been well known for years, “he said. “The difficulties employers face in supporting staffing were equally predictable in industries that have long been noted for low wages, inadequate benefits, and unpredictable scheduling practices. And larger structural barriers such as racial and ethnic discrimination were not secrets. “

Proposed policy changes

According to the report, there are some changes that Maine can make to mitigate some adverse effects.

For example, raising the minimum wage to $ 15 per hour by 2025 will raise the wages of 148,000 mainners, including many of the most risky frontline workers, and gradually increase the minimum wage of fallen workers. If it is abolished, it will be raised to about 16,000 people. The worker, Maior, said.

The state should also extend the scope of Maine’s paid leave law to include all workers, c.He added, reaffirming state-wide paid family law and long-term sick leave law.

Ryan Fekto, chairman of the Maine House of Representatives, said the 10-day quarantine associated with the COVID-19 contract, at least a major mess, could have disastrous consequences for some.

“(If you are) Earn an hourly wage, you’re off work for 10 days, and your employer allows you to still make (money) even if you’re not working because you’re doing due diligence I don’t have a policy. Keeping communities and workplaces safe … The impact on someone’s life is significant, “says Fecteau.

If the children of the family also get sick, he said, that could mean an additional 10 days of quarantine.

“It’s easy to see how this can turn into a big mess for working families, especially those who earn their wages on an hourly basis and are actually paying from salary,” says Fekto. I did.

The report also recommends empowering workers, among other things, through childcare subsidies, investment in labor development programs for people of color, increased Medicaid eligibility, and stronger workplace protection. I am.

Dana Connors, president and chief executive officer of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, said there were no problems with any of the report’s findings, but the report is unilateral about treating companies as adversaries. He said he was taking a good approach.

“To survive when we are, we really … need a partnership between businesses and workers,” he said.

In Maine, it’s primarily made up of small businesses, “employers and businesses were very sensitive to trying to evaluate workers in a way that could keep their business open,” Connors said. But the report reveals that “when it’s hard to do more,” the employer is responsible for doing more.

He added that goals such as raising wages, adding benefits, and regular scheduling can be difficult if few workers are enough to keep the door open, but Connors said. Employees and employers welcome foreign workers, eliminate discrimination, add childcare, etc.

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