Salary under $75K? Our data shows you’re more likely to get laid off

Compounding Disadvantages 

It’s a well-established truth that recessions hit low-income households the hardest. In each of the past four recessions, the lowest 20% of earners fared far worse on a relative basis than the average American. The Covid-19 recession looks likely to continue that trend. Our data suggests that the spread of Covid-19 has largely spared high-wage jobs compared to their lower-earning counterparts across many sectors. 

The workers most affected by the coronavirus downturn are also the least prepared. People who work low-wage jobs are uniquely vulnerable to economic booms and busts. They have less personal savings to tide them over and higher levels of personal debt.

In one recent survey, 34% of adults making under $50,000 in annual income said they would run out of savings in three months if someone in their household lost their job, while 18% said they have no savings to fall back on at all.  

To make matters worse, because healthcare in the U.S. is usually employer-provided, most terminated workers will lose their health insurance at the same time they lose their jobs, compounding their financial insecurity. It’s a devastating turn of events for millions of families. Just a few months ago, pay was rising for low earners thanks to minimum wage laws and robust economic growth. 

Our Methodology

• Rippling customer data from the period January 1, 2019, to April 14, 2019, and January 1, 2020, to April 14, 2020

• Data includes companies under 1,000 employees from a broad spectrum of industries

• For the purposes of analysis, the period prior to March 1, 2020 is considered "pre COVID-19 spread" and after March 1, 2020 is considered the "COVID-19 range"

• Conditions for inclusion are: salary not null, yearly, >$25,000, and <$300,000

• Companies with more than 200 terminations were excluded as they may skew figures

• The 2019 and 2020 sample data used included 3,465 total terminations across more than 600 companies