You may have heard there’s a labor shortage. The Wall Street Journal says so. So does the U.S Chamber of Commerce and many corporate CEOs.
Others say the labor shortage is mostly a myth, that businesses could easily find more workers if they just offered them more money. After all, that’s the law of supply and demand.
Preliminary data suggests that employers are starting to raise pay again, luring hesitant workers back after more than a year of COVID-19 lockdowns.
Wages rose across all racial groups in the first three months of 2021 — the first time that happened since the pandemic began to shut down the U.S. economy, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The typical full-time worker got a $32 weekly raise during that time, outpacing inflation.
But if you look closely at the numbers, a familiar theme emerges. The recovery is not the same for everyone. A Center for Public Integrity analysis of the data shows that white women and Asian men saw the largest gains in weekly pay — $39 and $48, respectively.
Meanwhile, Black men and Latinas got less than half as much. The $11 pay increase for the typical Black man was the smallest among all groups. The typical Latina received an $18 weekly raise.
These pay gaps, which come on top of longstanding income inequality, are the latest example of the pandemic’s uneven economic impact. Black and Latino employees, many of whom work in the service industry, lost their jobs at a higher rate than everyone else. They were also less likely to qualify for unemployment aid because many live in states that have made it harder to access the benefit.
“The [labor] market won’t correct 100 years of racial and gender inequality that have been baked into the system,” said Randy Albelda, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Albelda said lawmakers need to craft policies to reverse decades of income inequality, particularly by investing in child and elderly care services. She pointed to the Better Care Better Jobs Act, introduced in the House in June, which would raise wages and expand benefits for home care workers, who are predominantly immigrants and women of color. She also cited the Family Act, a bill that would subsidize paid leave for working families after the birth of a child or to care for a sick relative.
Neither bill has made it to a full vote in the Senate or the House.
“We entered the pandemic with enormous amounts of inequality among women, and the recession just made it worse,” Albelda said. “The market won’t correct itself.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 242 new monthly donors in the next 2 days.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy