How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted inequalities?
Olisa Aghadiuno
Nearly six in ten people believe the pandemic has increased the gulf between social classes, according to a new poll from the Social Mobility Commission. This adds to the growing evidence that those from more economically deprived areas in Britain are suffering the most as a result of the pandemic due to a number of factors such as people losing their jobs, living in cramped spaces, not being afforded basic necessities and children not having the sufficient technology to continue their education during lockdowns. In this essay, I will be discussing the impact the pandemic has had on disparities in gender, education, and ethnicity. Before engaging in the three specific inequalities noted above, it is necessary to expand on the fact that the pandemic has had an incredibly large impact on those from worse socio-economic backgrounds. Most people (excluding key workers) in the bottom tenth of the earnings distribution are in sectors that were forced to shut down during the lockdowns in 2020-21, and 80% were either in a shut-down sector or were unlikely to be able to do their job from home – compared with only a quarter of the highest- earning tenth being in the same position (Social Mobility Commission). This left the majority of those who had low incomes stranded as they were barely able to afford necessities such as rent, essential bills and food. This is despite the furlough scheme in the UK that left workers with 70% of what they were originally paid. Around 30% of low-income households pre-pandemic said that they could not manage a month if they were to lose their main source of household income, because a high proportion of their monthly budget is spent on necessities that are difficult to scale back. People who were barely able to survive pre-pandemic were forced to stop working by the government and simply were not provided with enough to survive. However, it should be noted that the furlough scheme did alleviate a lot of confidence issues regarding employment as those who received furlough were assured of their job security post-lockdown. It is also the case that people from less wealthy backgrounds were more susceptible to Covid-19 hospitalization due to a higher chance of having underlying conditions that aggravated the symptoms of the virus. This is a result of an amalgamation of poor working conditions and potentially a lack of access to health insurance. While the worldwide shutdown had a severely negative impact on the working class, the same cannot be said for those at the other end of the wealth spectrum. According to Institute for Policy Studies analysis of Forbes data, the combined wealth of all U.S. billionaires increased by $2.071 trillion (70.3 percent) between March 18, 2020 and October 15, 2021, from approximately $2.947 trillion to $5.019 trillion. Of the more than 700 U.S. billionaires, the richest five (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Elon Musk) saw a 123 percent increase in their combined wealth during this period, from $349 billion to $779 billion. This is due to the lockdown causing a staggering shift towards online services, so existing online powerhouses such as Amazon and Facebook saw an extraordinary rise in valuation. We also saw the rise of trading stocks and cryptocurrency which was pioneered by some of the wealthiest people in the world such as Elon Musk. It must also be said that even the middle class used the pandemic as an opportunity to develop a sizeable amount of wealth. This is because the disposable income that would usually be spent on indulgencies was left untouched to collect interest with everybody being made to stay inside. Ironically
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