While many of us are staying safe and healthy in the comfort of our own homes, some may have forgotten about the number of people working bravely on our front-lines. The list of what is considered essential is long: child care, grocery and liquor stores, maintenance and janitorial work, call centers, occupational therapists, social workers, and of course not forgetting our scientists in labs, pharmacists, doctors, nurses, and healthcare staff. Each and every one of these people are putting their life and health on the line, as well as that of the families they go home to at the end of the day.
“Recent research of the WageIndicator project based on data from France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and UK… calls for improved pay and conditions for those workers… The key finding was that ‘more than half the workers in all essential occupations are, (…) earning below their national average wage’.”
This is happening in the US too. “They are nursing assistants, phlebotomists, home health aides, housekeepers, medical assistants, cooks, and more. The vast majority of these workers are women, and they are disproportionately people of color. Median pay is just $13.48 an hour.”
What do you think of this? Some companies gave Hazard Pay? Many who offered it took it away as soon as Stay at Home orders began lifting. Was that too soon? Is this the push needed to raise wages in all of these “essential” professions? What then becomes “essential?”
https://www.epsu.org/article/wages-workers-frontline-pandemic-below-average-new-research-wageindicator