Saturday, March 28, 2020

The poor cannot work from home

As the coronavirus cases continue to rise in America, the US government has advised people to work from home. But working from home is not a privilege everyone has. Only one in four US workers have a job that allows them to work from home.
Those on the lowest incomes are least likely to be able to work from home – just 9% of workers who had earnings in the lowest 25% percentile said they could work from home, compared with 62% of workers in the highest 25% percentile. Full-time workers were twice as likely as part-time workers to say that they can work from home.
The industry where workers were most likely to say they could work from home was financial activities. Ironically, also the industry where employees are highly likely to have savings to tide them over during a period of employment. Not only did 57% of people who work in finance say that they could work from home, but 47% said they did work from home and were paid for doing so.

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