Under COVID-19, low-wage service sector workers found themselves as essential workers vulnerable to intensified precarity. Based on in-depth interviews with a sample of 52 low-wage service workers interviewed first in Summer 2019 and then in the last two weeks of April 2020, we argue that COVID-19 has created new and heightened dimensions of precarity for low-wage workers. They experience (1) moments of what we call precarious stability, in which an increase in hours and predictable schedules is accompanied by unpredictability in the tasks workers are assigned, (2) increased threats to bodily integrity, and (3) experiences of fear and anxiety as background conditions of work and intensified emotional labor. The impacts of COVID-19 on workers’ lives warrant an expanded conceptualization of precarity that captures the dynamic and shifting nature of precarious stability and must incorporate workers’ limited control over their bodily integrity and emotions as core components of precarious working conditions.

在COVID-19之下，低薪服务部门的工人发现自己是必不可少的工人，容易受到危险的加剧。根据对52位低薪服务工人的首次深入访谈，他们首先在2019年夏季接受采访，然后在2020年4月的最后两周接受采访，我们认为COVID-19为低薪职业创造了新的和高度关注的危险因素工人。他们经历（1）不稳定的时刻，其中工作时间的增加和可预见的时间表的增加，以及分配给工人的任务的不可预测性，（2）对身体完整性的威胁增加，以及（3）作为工作的背景条件和加剧的情绪劳动而经历的恐惧和焦虑。COVID-19对工人生活的影响需要对危险性进行扩展的概念化，以捕捉危险性稳定性的动态和变化性质，并且必须将工人对其身体完整性和情感的有限控制纳入危险性工作条件的核心组成部分。