Snapshot of the COVID Crisis Impact on Working Families

Researchers from Columbia and Duke Universities examined effects of the coronavirus pandemic in an ongoing sample of service workers in a single U.S. city. Their findings indicate that families’ work situations rapidly evolved, as did their mental health and stress levels. Importantly, the authors noted that rapid response and existing public policies—like emergency childcare, grab-and-go meals, distance learning, and unemployment insurance—are slow to reach families in need, both because families may not know how to nimbly access these resources and because existing programs have inherent enrollment barriers. By contrast, families who were still receiving some pay were doing much better financially than their unpaid counterparts, suggesting that employer-delivered benefits, like employment guarantee programs in the United Kingdom, may be most effective at keeping families afloat. #covid-19 #workforce