Domestic workers are overwhelmingly marginalized workers, and as we know, the coronavirus pandemic has been the hardest on already marginalized people. A new survey of 800 Black immigrant domestic workers in three areas shows just how bad it is for these workers who take care of children, elderly people, and people with disabilities, or who clean homes. The workers’ stress and pain were evident when they spoke to reporters, as Gabe Ortiz wrote. The numbers are staggering, too.

Overall, 45% of the Black immigrant domestic workers surveyed had lost their jobs. Another 25% had their hours or pay reduced. Nearly two out of three were experiencing housing instability, and half don’t have health insurance. But the overall numbers cover big variations between the locations surveyed by the Institute for Policy Studies’ Black Worker Initiative, in partnership with the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance We Dream in Black program: Massachusetts; Miami-Dade, Florida; and New York City. Across the board, workers in Miami-Dade have been the hardest hit.

Job loss: In Massachusetts, 21% of the workers surveyed had lost their jobs. In New York, it was 30% of documented workers and 34% of undocumented workers. In Miami-Dade, 67% of documented workers and 96% of undocumented workers had lost their jobs. (Note: The Massachusetts sample of the survey had very few undocumented workers, so I’m not breaking those numbers out.)

Reduced hours or pay: So many workers lost their jobs in Miami-Dade that the numbers who had hours or pay reduced are comparatively low: 20% for documented workers and 2% for undocumented ones. In Massachusetts, 38% had lost hours or pay. In New York, this was true of 31% of undocumented workers and 28% of documented workers.

Housing instability: 56% of Massachusetts Black immigrant domestic workers reported they were at risk of being evicted or having utilities shut off; in Miami-Dade, 94% of undocumented workers and 85% of documented workers said the same; in New York, it was 60% of undocumented workers and 51% of documented ones.

Lack of personal protective equipment (PPE): Most of the workers didn’t get any PPE from their employers—52% in Massachusetts; 89% in Miami-Dade, where once again undocumented workers fared worse than documented ones; and 75% in New York City, where documented and undocumented workers were about the same.

Medical insurance: Just one in five Massachusetts workers reported lacking medical insurance. (Remember, this is an overwhelmingly documented group of respondents.) Insurance was the biggest documented versus undocumented divide in New York, with 29% of documented workers and 83% of undocumented workers uninsured. Unsurprisingly, the numbers in Miami-Dade were off-the-charts bad, with 100% of undocumented workers and 65% of documented ones uninsured.

Overall, 25% of the Black immigrant domestic workers said they’d experienced COVID-19 symptoms themselves or lived with someone who had—documented workers were more likely to report exposure, “probably because they are more likely to still be employed,” the report notes.

Workers’ access to a safety net was also a major issue, with 49% afraid to seek government assistance because of their immigration status. Immigration status also makes it much more difficult for these workers to find new work—52% said that their immigration status has a negative impact, with the number hitting 67% among undocumented workers.

This pandemic has been brutal to us all, but there can be no doubt that the people it’s hit the hardest—in health risks and economically—are the people who had the least leeway in their lives to begin with. And if you had a domestic worker before the shutdowns and you still have your income? Keep paying her (or, in rare cases, him)!

This blog originally appeared at Daily Kos on June 18, 2020. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author: Laura Clawson has been a Daily Kos contributing editor since December 2006. Full-time staff since 2011, currently assistant managing editor.