Black and Latino communities will be hit the hardest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s Why.

By Christopher Hayes

In a vacuum, the coronavirus shows no prejudice. But in a society that race, class, and gender have helped to shape, the suffering is not evenly distributed. When the COVID-19 pandemic has ended in this country, we will see an unequal distribution of infections and deaths along the intersecting lines of race and class.

New Jersey is a place of great and worsening income inequality, with substantial racial disparities. The median income for Black families, around $48,000, is a little more than half of what white families earn. Latino families bring in about 60% of what white families earn. The economic barriers erected by a legacy of structural discrimination, including our state’s highly segregated schools, put our poorest residents at the highest risk of catching the virus.

A disproportionate number of Black and Latino New Jerseyans have jobs that cannot be done remotely, whether at a cash register, in a nursing home, at an airport, in a kitchen, or as part of a custodial team. Many of these jobs put them in close quarters, and in repeat contact, with people who may be infected. This leaves the workers and their families at risk.

While New Jersey is one of the few states with a paid sick leave law, and we should be proud of that, it provides only 40 hours of paid time off for the year. It does nothing for people who work off the books. Tipped workers are supposed to be paid based on their previous week’s earnings, while those who work on commission get their base pay (if they have one) or minimum wage, whichever is greater.

On Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a paid family leave expansion allowing workers who are ill, and those who are caring for a sick family member, to collect two-thirds of their pay for up to six weeks. It’s capped at $667 weekly. This represents a huge step forward, though many low-wage families will struggle without full pay, with Latinos feeling particularly at risk. At the federal level, the coronavirus relief package provides two weeks of sick leave at full pay. The law excludes workers at large firms, or about half the U.S. workforce.

The situation is perhaps most dire for the nearly 500,000 undocumented immigrants living in New Jersey. The U.S. Labor Department’s top employment category for these workers is accommodation and food services, arts, entertainment, and recreation These are precisely the people who lost their jobs first when businesses began closing statewide. The new federal stimulus bill will greatly expand unemployment benefits, essential at a time of unprecedented unemployment applications, but it will not help undocumented workers.

Half of undocumented workers in New Jersey make less than $24,000 a year for an individual, or less than $50,000 for a family of four, and more than half have no health insurance. Though coronavirus testing is now free, our undocumented neighbors may be reluctant to get tested, as they worry it could lead to deportation. This keeps the virus spreading among their family members, friends, and communities.

To make matters worse, African Americans and Latinos suffer disproportionately from some of the underlying conditions that threaten COVID-19 patients with a much higher risk of death. African American adults are 60% more likely to carry a diabetes diagnosis than white adults, and they have the greatest incidence of high blood pressure in the world. And while Latino adults don’t have high blood pressure at a higher rate than white people, it is less well-controlled and it kills them at a much higher rate.

Asthma already kills African Americans at a higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group in the country. Black and Latino Americans are much more likely to live near hazardous waste facilities and in places with poor air quality, leading to irreversible respiratory damage that makes surviving COVID-19 much more difficult.

All of this paints a sobering picture for many of New Jersey’s most vulnerable families, a situation that is already playing out in Detroit. It’s difficult to say what’s happening in Newark or Camden, as we have only tested a few thousand residents, and getting tested presents serious challenges to people without cars.

Racial and class disparities are nothing new, but we continue to see new ways in which they manifest. The good news is that we have solutions: school integration, immigration reform, and federal action to correct centuries-old wrongs. What’s needed is the effort to enact them. Perhaps, when the pandemic ends, our leaders will take a closer look at how to reduce these inequities before the next crisis strikes.

Christopher Hayes is a labor historian in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.