Pandemic creates ‘weird boom time’ for some remote workers
The new worker divide reinforces old economic trends
Millions of California workers have faced at least one of two gut-wrenching situations this past year: losing their jobs or risking their lives by showing up in person at work during a pandemic.
But for the others — the “work-from-home” contingent — things have been, well, mostly fine.
“My career, knock on wood, is taking off,” said Penny Bailey, a recruiter at a San Francisco-based startup that builds software for online teamwork. Bailey got her new job and a raise three months into the pandemic. “I feel really good about my income, and that’s new for me. That contrast isn’t lost on me. I feel this weird guilt.”
The difference between those who can work from home and those who can’t is creating a new divide in the midst of the worst health and economic crises in decades. Remote workers typically make more, are less likely to be laid off, and don’t have to risk daily exposure like essential workers, about half of whom are low-wage employees.
“Remote work is the key differentiator of how you’re experiencing this crisis,” said Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
Slightly over one in five American workers said they were able to work remotely last month, U. S. Bureau of Statistics shows. Remote workers were five times less likely to have lost their job during the pandemic, according to a spring Apartment List survey of more than 4,000 employees across the United States. In California, nearly one in five workers were without a job at some point in 2020 and one in 11 remain unemployed.