Covid-19 Crisis Amplifies Inequalities, Affects Even Workers with Higher Education

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The economic shutdown triggered by the Coronavirus pandemic is expected to amplify inequality in the Brazilian labor market between men and women, as well as between whites and blacks.

This is shown in a study by the Solidarity Research Network, which includes researchers from several universities and organizations in the country. Women are at greater risk of losing their jobs and income, because they are more present in non-essential sectors -strongly affected by Covid-19-, while blacks have more precarious and casual employment ties.

Thus, black women continue to be the most vulnerable and remain at the base of the pyramid of inequality in Brazil.

The document also alerts that the crisis triggered by the coronavirus has created a new group of vulnerable women and men – those with higher education, who, despite having more stable employment ties, and thus relatively more protected, have now been severely affected by the new economic dynamics.

The new reality brought about by the pandemic has classified as non-essential the very activities on which these workers are most concentrated. These include teachers in private institutions, clothing and shoe sellers, travel goods, legal, accounting and auditing activities.

“The coronavirus pandemic creates a new group of vulnerable people, white men and women, who have never been in a position to worry about job and income stability like this. The crisis certainly opens up a group of unprotected whites and further deepens the group of casual labor blacks,” explains Rogério Barbosa, a post-doctoral researcher at the Metropolis Study Center (University of São Paulo – USP) and one of those in charge of the study.

According to Barbosa, compensatory policies, such as the R$600 emergency aid granted to low-income and unemployed casual workers, were quick and significant, but could not offset the losses of part of its beneficiaries.

“Poor families, in general, are numerous, and three or four people work. A benefit with a ceiling of R$1,200 cannot offset the money the family is losing, thus rendering the situation more precarious than before the pandemic,” he explains. The new vulnerable group runs the risk of not being granted any benefits by the government because they fail to comply with the program’s rules, according to Barbosa. However, the researchers point out that the “traditionally vulnerable” are still more vulnerable than the “new vulnerable”.

Casual domestic workers, the most vulnerable in the country

The study estimates that of every ten workers in Brazil, eight are currently at some degree of risk of losing income and employment. Almost 38 percent of workers are at risk because they have casual (highly unstable) employment ties and 45.9 percent because, albeit formally employed, they have been dramatically impacted by the pandemic.

Within the most vulnerable employment category, casual domestic workers are uniformly the most affected segment in the country, followed by casual workers in personal beauty services. Together they amount to approximately six million people, according to the 2019 PNAD (National Household Sample Survey) data.

The notion of vulnerability, in the context of the economic crisis associated with Covid-19, is related to the potential for dismissal or impact on salary at the end of the month, which may affect previously stable groups and even those of high socioeconomic status.

To estimate the impacts of the crisis, the researchers used the incidence of dismissals or lower income, according to the employers’ statements to SEBRAE (Brazilian Small Business Administration), Google data on mobility in commercial establishments, and Cielo’s (electronic payment solutions company) report on card transactions.

Source: El Pais