Truly Honoring Our Workers

I hope all of you had a restful Labor Day and had a moment to reflect on the renewed gratitude for our workers who are the backbone of our economy.

During this pandemic, millions of Americans have and continue to go to work each day in essential roles; they are heroes who risk their health every day, but still earn less than a living wage. While many of us continue working from home, it’s important to remember that it’s not a luxury every one of us can afford. In the South, many frontline sectors are made up of large percentages of people of color. Fewer than 20 percent of Black Americans have had jobs that allow them to work at home. Many Black workers are concentrated in public-facing jobs, working in mass transit, home healthcare, retail and service, where social distancing is virtually impossible.

Our country also still has grave economic insecurity. It’s important to remember that before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, one in every three Americans lived with economic insecurity; more than half are people of color as the result of decades of structural racism and the resulting income inequality. Even worse, approximately 140 million Americans could not afford a $400 emergency before the pandemic. Put simply, the coronavirus has only emphasized a widespread and long-existing pandemic of poverty that is too readily ignored or accepted in our communities.

Many have asked how our economy can recover from COVID-19. I think the more important question is, “How can we rebuild our economy back better than it was before the pandemic sent tens of millions hurtling towards unemployment?” Instead of solely offering nice platitudes, “honoring” these workers can start with paying them a living wage, providing paid sick and family leave, and ensuring greater workplace protections as the pandemic continues. Rebuilding our economy back better looks like prioritizing worker protections by making policies and investments that protect people first. It includes enacting long-term, permanent solutions to their needs like stronger employment benefits, support for childcare services and ensuring food assistance is accessible.

What can be done to address these issues? Read about our policy recommendations here.

Where do the presidential candidates stand on these important issues? Check out our presidential policy tracker here.

EPU’s work is going to address these disparities through our policy recommendations, UNUM Fellows leadership training and our engagement through the Truth. Action. Reconciliation virtual conversation series. And, like we do in so many facets of our lives, we need to redesign the systems that have kept us apart. This work must start with rebuilding an economy that works for all American people.

Mitch Landrieu
Founder and President