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How COVID is Deepening California's Income Inequality, in 5 Charts

Food security, ability to pay rent and loss of low-wage jobs are three areas where economic disparities in California are most visible amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Anne Wernikoff
/
CalMatters
Food security, ability to pay rent and loss of low-wage jobs are three areas where economic disparities in California are most visible amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic has left millions of Californians without jobs, food or money for next month鈥檚 rent. Meanwhile, the state鈥檚 many billionaires got richer.

The decade dawned on a California that was both 鈥渢he richest and poorest鈥 state in the nation, in the words of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Wages for the top 10% of California鈥檚 earners had grown as fast as those of the bottom 10% of earners since 1980 鈥 all as the cost of buying or renting shelter skyrocketed.

Then coronavirus tore across the globe, sickening hundreds of thousands of Californians and shutting down California鈥檚 booming service and tourism economies 鈥 not once but now twice.

The pandemic has driven a wedge into the fault lines dividing the state鈥檚 haves and have nots. The workers facing the highest rates of unemployment are those that already earned the lowest wages. Federal and state lawmakers have , but many fall through the cracks. And it will soon shrink back towards its previous size when CARES Act funding for extra unemployment dollars expires July 31.

Like a feedback loop, California鈥檚 income inequality may also to the virus鈥 spread. The second wave of cases now overwhelming the state are increasingly among young Californians and Latinos 鈥 the same demographics that make up California鈥檚 essential workforce, and disproportionately live in .

California鈥檚 economic divide is growing, posing weighty policy questions the state 鈥 and its residents 鈥 will need to grapple with in months and years ahead.

1. Before the pandemic, many Californians were on the brink of poverty

2. The pandemic hit low-wage workers who are women, young and not white hardest

3. A third of Californians don鈥檛 know how they鈥檒l pay next month鈥檚 rent

4. By one researcher鈥檚 estimate, the rate of household food insecurity has doubled

5. Meanwhile, the rich got richer

This article is part of The California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California.