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Teleworking during the pandemic and access to it among different ethnic groups

An article by Iryna Burmina


Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking has been recommended as a safe and efficient way of working across different countries, industries and occupations. However, teleworking can bring additional challenges for certain people. Previous research made by the Economic Policy Institute (Figure 1) shows that even before the pandemic only around 30% of people could do their job remotely (2020). In addition to this, opportunities to do it properly has also shown to be dependent on race and ethnicity, and the distinct hierarchization of these.


The chart below categorises workers into three race groups and two ethnicity groups. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Asian, Non-Hispanic and White workers have better opportunities to do their job from homes, compared to workers of the Black or African American race categories and those within Hispanic or Latino ethnicity categories.



Figure 1


As the U.S. Pew Research Center presents (Figure 2), around 90% of people could not perform their jobs remotely (2020).


Work position and educational level of workers have also been noted to directly influence the possibility of teleworking as a career during the pandemic. As the chart below (Figure 3) shows 62% of the people who hold a bachelor’s degree can continue to do their work from home.


The research which has been done in the United States (Figure 4) shows that Hispanic workers, especially the immigrant ones, have less chances to do teleworking hence to keep their job positions (Pew Research Centre, 2020).


Without a doubt, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, all workers have faced challenges but as the research showed People of Color have been affected more than any others.



Figure 2



Figure 3




Figure 4


One key factor which can be derived from these infographics is that Black and Hispanic workers in most cases have to work outside their homes (Figure 5) and are therefore more susceptible to being infected by the virus, and, as mentioned in Boehme’s article, with these being impacted by poorer access to healthcare the fatality of this will inevitably be higher than that of their White counterparts. As the chart below presents, these are more likely to work in ‘essential jobs’ like grocery stores, hospitals, postal services, and nursing care facilities. It means their work is closely related to social interaction with people and it cannot be done from home. In case of the Covid-19 pandemic and the detrimental consequences it has brought with it, these groups do not only have higher chances of losing their job positions but those who continue to work are also subjected to a risk of exposure to the virus or contracting it while they are being exposed to other people (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019).


Figure 5

It is reported (Figure 6) that due to the corona crisis Black and Hispanic families are more likely to have financial difficulties and have a feeling of insecurity of not being able to fully pay for their rent, utilities or food (The Health Reform Monitoring Survey, 2020). Because of that, they have to use their savings or funds or increase their credit card debt. In a long term perspective, if the Covid-19 world crisis continues, it will be negatively affecting those families even more.



Figure 6


Even before the pandemic, parents who work full time have been facing a lot of difficulties to manage the balance between work and home. With the beginning of the pandemic, those families had a bunch of new challenges as long as most schools were closed. It may be thought that since the beginning of the Covid-19 when all the family members are staying home the domestic chores will be divided equally between them. But the current researches prove the opposite (Marsh, 2020). Silvia Federici in her work ‘Notes on gender in Marx’s Capital’ analyzing different forms of women’s exploitation in the capitalist society and pointing out that Marx failed to comprehend ‘the strategic importance of the sphere of activities and relations by which … lives of <women> and labor power are reproduced, beginning with sexuality, procreation and, first and foremost, women’s unpaid domestic labor’ (Federici, 2017: 3). The recent data shows that in that period of time, although a lot of women continued doing their jobs, they have been facing even a great amount of domestic work (Hyland & Chinnapong, 2020).


Boston Consulting Group conducted research on this topic in five countries: the United States, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. It is presented that about 60% of parents have not found alternative care for their children and they have faced full responsibilities for their well-being (Figure 7). Besides, although some women have received help from their partners, they still have a great burden of household work (Figure 8) (Boston Consulting Group, 2020).

Figure 7



Figure 8


Since the beginning of the lockdown, a lot of campaigners have warned about a negative impact on the work and lives of women because of the Covid-19 crisis. A UN study (2020) suggests (Figure 9) that the current crisis may affect gender equality negatively.

Figure 9


In addition, a lot of women may experience additional social inequities due to their race or ethnic background. As seen in the research conducted by the Economic Policy Institute amidst the Covid-19 pandemic women of color and women of Hispanic ethnicity work in frontline jobs (Figure 10, 11). Even though, they work as nurses, care assistants, retail salespeople, and they are still being paid less than male workers (Economic Policy Institute, 2020).


Figure 10

Figure 11


As a result of multiple research, it can be said that race may emerge as a class in the Covid-19 pandemic. A lot of workers cannot adequately do teleworking, they have to do their jobs physically in different places which makes them more vulnerable in the current circumstances. As the numbers show most of such workers have African – American or Hispanic origins. The current situation with Black female workers has a certain similarity with the idea of ‘triple oppression’ in the article of Charisse Burden-Stelly (2020). She writes that ‘as Black women’s superexploitation was based on their race, sex and subordination in the labor market’ (Burden-Stelly, 2020: 5) and we can see some traces of it in modern times. It is evident in the research of the Economic Policy Institute (2020) that in times of the pandemic a lot of Black women perform their work in the so-called ‘frontline positions’ yet they still earn less than white men.


The current pandemic reveals numerous hidden limits of possibilities to work due to the race or ethnicity of people. Mostly, it is all a result of people’s lack of adequate education or legal rights.



References:


Boehme, J. (2020). Covid-19 and racial differences in the United States - which racial groups are hit harder and why? https://raceandthepandemic.wixsite.com/aboutus/post/covid-19-and-racial-differences-in-the-united-states-which-racial-groups-are-hit-harder-and-why


Boston Consulting groups. (2020, March - April). Easing the Covid-19 burden on working parents. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/helping-working-parents-ease-the-burden-of-covid-19


Burden-Stelly, C. (2020). Modern U.S. Racial Capitalism. Monthly Review, 1-5


Dey, M., Frazis, H., A., Loewenstein,Mark, & Sun, H. (2020, June). Ability to work from home: evidence from two surveys and implications for the labor market in the COVID-19 pandemic. Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/ability-to-work-from-home.htm


Federici, S. (2017) Notes on Gender in Marx’s Capital. Continental Thought&Theory, Volume 1, 2- 10

https://www.inversejournal.com/2019/12/25/marx-and-feminism-by-silvia-federici/


Hyland, P. & Chinnapong, V. (2020, July 8). Study: Pandemic taking greater toll on women in the workforce. Human Resource Executive. https://hrexecutive.com/study-pandemic-taking-greater-toll-on-women-in-the-workforce/


Marsch, S. (2020, October 9). Women bear brunt of Covid-related work stress, UK study finds. The Guardian.


Pew Research Institute. (2020). Telework may save US jobs in Covid – 19 downturn especially among college graduates. Pew Research Centre.



U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019). Job Flexibilities and Work Schedules - 2017-2018: Data from the American Time Use Survey. Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/flex2.pdf


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