Low income workers disproportionally affected by Covid-19

Low income workers in developing countries face a higher risk of income loss during the Covid-19 lockdown as it is less possible to conduct their jobs from home, suggests a new study from UCL, Bank of Thailand, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and GRIPS, Tokyo. The study, published in  Covid Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers , used Thailand as a case study but the findings are highly relevant for other countries with similar labour market structures - specifically, those with a large share of self-employment and low social safety net. Dr Suphanit Piyapromdee (UCL Economics) said: "The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted working life in many ways, with the negative consequences around employment and pay, distributed unevenly under lockdown regulations. "A substantially larger percentage of people in lower income groups have manual roles, such as construction (10% in Thailand; 11.5% in EU-27) or machine-based jobs, which means they can't work remotely and are without any income.  "Therefore without adequate government intervention to support income or employment for the poor, the adverse impact of Covid-19 could worsen income inequality." The researchers found that low income workers, such as farmers and construction or factory workers, tend to work in jobs that require less physical proximity to other people at work than high income workers, such as office workers or school teachers. However, as low income workers tend to be in occupations that are more machine-dependent and less ICT-enabled, this makes them less flexible to work remotely.