“It’s very rare to really see a policy like the minimum wage lead to restaurants exiting the market unless they were already marginally on the edge of making it or not making it. And so, it’s really the other reasons that were causing the precarity of the restaurant,” said Dr. Enrique Lopezlira, the director of the Low Wage Work Program at UC Berkeley’s Labor Center.

A pair of researchers looked at what happened after the marathon refinery closed in 2020.345 people lost their jobs. The researchers found that while about 75% of the workers found new jobs. Raj Mathai speaks with UC Irvine professor Dr. Virginia Parks, who is one of the researchers on this project.

Enrique Lopezlira, the director of the Low-Wage Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, said that women and workers of color were affected more severely by the pandemic because they are overrepresented in industries that pay low wages, where they had to work on-site and risk their health during the pandemic.

“The Black and Hispanic workers were already trailing in wages and income…Women, especially those who are mothers or taking care of relatives, they’ve had to exit the workforce,” said Dr. Lopezlira.