The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a progressive think tank, has published a report stating that people in ‘working class jobs’ have been around twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those in ‘middle class jobs’. And those in the lowest paid occupations have experienced a mortality rate five times higher than those in the highest paid occupations.
Policy decisions during the pandemic mediated the way in which work shaped health. The coronavirus job retention scheme should, for example, have been a successful public health intervention that reduced viral transmission (and unemployment) and therefore protected population health.
On the other hand, the decision not to increase statutory sick pay is an example of how policy has contributed to viral transmission and deepened Covid-19 inequalities. Not only does the UK have the one of the lowest levels of statutory sick pay as a proportion of earnings in the OECD, but new research for this report finds stark age, race and class inequalities in accessing any sick pay whatsoever.
As the pandemic reshapes labour markets and redefines attitudes to work, this report makes the case for why health should be put at the heart of work. New analysis, conducted by the Virus Watch study at UCL and shared with IPPR for the report, shows that many people are not even able to access basic levels of sick pay and that the most vulnerable groups are being unfairly impacted the most: poorer households, older workers, class disparity and racial disparity.
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