Further to our earlier notes on this subject, we were pleased to read this week that California will prioritize vaccine distribution to disadvantaged racial and socioeconomic groups. That’s good news for the hardest hit parts of our population. We remain concerned about disproportionate unemployment in the bottom wage quartile, where California’s 28 percent drop in employment is nearly 50 percent greater than in that wage quartile nationwide.
Perhaps placing a priority on opening K-8 classrooms (since the burden is greatest on low-wage workers with young children in unopened public schools) and more precisely tailoring COVID-related closing measures could help to alleviate the disproportionate burden on California’s low-wage workers.
