The coronavirus pandemic is placing the nation’s 2.2 million domestic workers—91.5% of whom are women—in a particularly precarious position. Steep declines in work are leading to a devastating loss of income while a lack of protective equipment for those who still work is a real threat to their health. This blog post provides details on who domestic workers are and where they live.

Domestic workers, whose worksites are private homes, have always faced unique challenges and have seen their work undervalued. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, this already-vulnerable group is placed in a particularly precarious position. Many domestic workers are experiencing a steep decline in work. According to new data from the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), just over half (52%) of domestic workers surveyed said they had no job for the week beginning March 30—and that share increased to 68% by the next week. Domestic workers face long-term uncertainty, with 66% reporting that they are unsure if their clients will give them their jobs back after the pandemic. The decline in employment for domestic workers represents a significant loss of income for these workers and their families.

Domestic workers who are still on the front lines risk sacrificing their health for economic security. House cleaners—who help families follow the practices advocated by public health officials to help to prevent the spread of disease—and home care aides—who care for sick, disabled, and elderly people—may lack the protective equipment they need. Certain groups of domestic workers are excluded from basic labor protections, including those guaranteed under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Family Medical Leave Act, which are particularly important sets of protections for workers in the midst of a pandemic.

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In an unprecedented ruling Monday night, the United States Supreme Court voted to allow Wisconsin’s primary election to occur as scheduled, even as nearly a dozen other states have postponed their primaries due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Today, as voting is happening, Wisconsin has almost 2,500 reported cases of the coronavirus and is under a “safer at home” order that Democratic Governor Tony Evers issued on March 25. It orders Wisconsin residents to stay at home unless engaged in an essential activity.

After a lengthy battle between the state’s Democratic governor, the Republican-controlled legislature, and the judiciary branch on whether or not to postpone the election and extend absentee ballot deadlines, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision left Wisconsin voters with a difficult choice: stay safely at home or risk getting sick and waiting in long lines to exercise their fundamental right to vote.

This choice was particularly cruel for voters in Wisconsin’s largest and most diverse city, Milwaukee. There, so few poll workers signed up to work that the city was able to open only five polling locations, instead of the usual 180. In a city of around 600,000 residents, opening only a handful of polling locations led to extremely long lines that wrapped around city blocks and forced people to wait for hours.

Unfortunately, Milwaukee is used to this type of voter suppression.

Since 2011, Wisconsin has had one of the strictest voter ID laws in the country, requiring residents to have a current address on their identification. This disproportionately hurts voters in urban parts of the state, like Milwaukee County, which has one of the highest eviction rates in the state, making it harder for residents to keep a current address on their ID. In fact, research by the University of Wisconsin found that 17,000 Wisconsin voters were kept from the polls in 2016 because of the strict voter ID law.

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