The COVID-19 pandemic led to a lockdown in European countries in the first half of 2020, including stay-at-home orders and closure of non-essential businesses. To mitigate the detrimental effects on the financial stress of employees and households, the UK government implemented a furlough scheme that temporarily secured earnings up to 80 percent of regular pay. Other employees were at risk of reduced work hours or permanent job loss. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study COVID-19 Supplement, this study examines the extent to which different earnings groups and sociodemographic groups (gender, race/ethnicity, class background) became exposed to economic hardship between March and May of 2020. Results indicate that lower earnings groups were more than twice as likely to experience economic hardship relative to top quintile earners. Furthermore, among pre-COVID employed individuals, men had a higher probability of being furloughed or dismissed from work, as well as whites in middle-income jobs. Analyses indicate that these gaps are to a large extent attributable to structural gender earnings inequalities within occupations and the fact that women and racial-ethnic minorities are employed in essential occupations.

COVID-19大流行导致2020年上半年在欧洲国家受到封锁，包括留在家里的订单和非必要业务的关闭。为了减轻对员工和家庭的财务压力的不利影响，英国政府实施了休假计划，该计划暂时确保收入高达正常工资的80％。其他员工面临减少工作时间或永久性失业的风险。该研究使用英国家庭纵向研究COVID-19增刊中的数据，研究了2020年3月至5月之间不同收入群体和社会人口群体（性别，种族/民族，阶级背景）遭受经济困难的程度。结果表明与收入最高的五分之一收入者相比，收入较低的群体遭受经济困难的可能性是原来的两倍。此外，在COVID之前的受雇人员中，男性和白人在中等收入工作中被休假或解雇的可能性更高。分析表明，这些差距在很大程度上归因于职业内部结构性的性别收入不平等，以及妇女和种族少数族裔从事基本职业这一事实。