Working class men on lower pay are more likely to die
WORKING class men in low paid jobs are more likely to die of coronavirus than anyone else between the ages of 20 and 64, figures revealed yesterday.
Security guards, bus drivers, male carers, chefs and retail staff all have higher rates of death than other workers, the analysis said.
They are up to four times as likely to die as middle class graduates working as lawyers, teachers, accountants and engineers.
But people of both sexes working in social care also have significantly higher death rates than the working population as a whole.
However, doctors, nurses and other medical workers in the NHS do not, the Office for National Statistics reported.
Factory and warehouse staff of both sexes are also dying in considerably higher than average numbers.
Men working as security guards had the highest death rates, at 43.2 deaths per 100,000.
While men in higher paid occupations died at a rate of 5.6 per 100,000, this was four times higher at 21.4 for those in “low-skilled elementary occupations”. The reasons for this are not clear, but people working in better paid jobs are likely to live in less deprived areas, have better general health and spend less time in publicfacing work.
John Phillips, acting general secretary at the GMB trade union, said: “These figures are horrifying. If you are low paid and working through the Covid-19 crisis you are more likely to die.That’s how stark these figures are.”
The average death rate for working women was 5.2 per 100,000.
Women are dying at the highest rates if they are hairdressers (18.1 per 100,000), factory workers (15.6) or carers (10.1).