The Truth About Coronavirus And The American Gig Economy
The American economy is shot right now. Price gouging is already happening for regular goods like toilet paper, cleaning supplies and baby formula. Women who look like our third-grade teachers are fist-fighting over Charmin and Lysol in the supermarket adding to the confusion, while shipping ports are closing and certain goods will inevitably become more expensive, if not only more difficult to find.
Shipping port closures: https://www.polb.com/port-info/news-and-press/cargo-declines-at-port-of-long-beach-in-february-03-10-2020/
https://laist.com/latest/post/20200303/port-los-angeles-coronavirus-shipping-labor
With the announcement of health and safety-related mass event cancellations and city-mandated closing of bars, clubs and restaurants, many of my colleagues and friends are out of work — not working from home, out of work — for at least the next two weeks. So far, California, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio have all closed dining and nightlife spaces effective as of Sunday, March 15 at midnight and expected to last until Tuesday, March 31, unless extended.
Frantically straining for financial gains and looking for backup income while job markets are actively shutting down is economically and realistically not a feasible option for many of the thousands affected by Covid-19’s presence. And unfortunately, our government is so ill-prepared, we even let our Pandemic Response Team be disbanded while Trump has ‘no idea’ who’s to blame. As you can imagine, the country isn’t only ill-equipped to handle a pandemic scientifically, it’s scratching its proverbial head on how to handle the crisis economically.
There’s a proposed bill that succeeded in the House of Representatives Friday that would give employers with 500 or fewer employees a tax credit to pay their employees for wages lost during Covid-19 closures. There’s also a tax credit included in that bill for business owners (strippers, I’m talking to you) that would help monetarily if actually passed by the Senate. If you’re a freelancer or work in the gig industry — like many writers, videographers, editors, dancers, performers, musicians, chefs, entire teams of event producers and product distributors, etc — I’m giving you no bullshit for those two weeks — in terms of what our government intends to do for us, we’re essentially fucked. We’re drinking our liquor straight these days, so if you’re having trouble biting the bullet and coping as many of us are, you may want to stop reading here.
The number of people who live paycheck to paycheck who can’t go to work for the next two weeks is an actual economic crisis by textbook standards, not just my own. For example, there are give or take 2.6 million waiters in America right now. That’s nearly 3 million people in that one occupation alone who won’t be working if trends and patterns continue exactly as they are currently. Even if we account for the more unexpected charitable funds that exist in the world like the One Fair Wage campaign, for example, which is currently helping fund tip-based workers affected by work closures, or the United States Bartender Guild (USBG), which actually has a relief program where bartenders can apply for monetary support during the Covid-19 crisis. For the long term, however, we know this just won’t be enough. We need infrastructure.
California has compiled a list of links and resources for those whose incomes will be affected by the virus closures, but most of the benefits only include protection for individuals who have contracted the virus, have been exposed and are in quarantine because of it, or are caregiving for someone who has fallen ill with Covid-19. Parents whose children won’t be able to attend school due to shutdowns may be eligible for Unemployment benefits, however. If you’re a W-2-receiving employee and your job is out of operation due to Covid-19 for the end of March, you should definitely apply for unemployment benefits in your state as well.
For self-employed CA residents, we’re told, “The available benefits are insurance programs. To be eligible, either you or an employer had to make contributions in the past 5 to 18 months. It is possible these contributions were made at a prior job, or if you were misclassified as an independent contractor instead of an employee.” Due to new laws that went into effect January of 2019 surrounding 1099 freelance workers, the legality of your work and whether it falls under independent contractor or employee status may be in a grey zone. What you can do, however, is call your tax person and explain your confusion about whether you’d qualify for certain Covid-19 tax relief. I’d totally consider calling a local H&R Block as well and seeing what kind of information a friendly tone could get you.
Since journalists' minds are trained on how to interpret information and data, many of us in this field oftentimes feel comfortable saying certain things with our chests. Initially, I really wanted to warn my friends to all compile their Black Air Forces and prepare for the worst. I considered, however, that maybe everyone could hold off on robbing each other if there could be some structure or silver lining and some form of support in leiu of all the confusion, panic and toilet paper hoarding.
