Data and Research driven Inclusion

The Biden administration’s proposed $2.65 trillion American Jobs Plan is a commitment of resources and investments to overcome structural economic inequity, driven by racial and gender discrimination and exclusion. It comes on the heels of the Jan. 21, 2020, Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities, which affirmed a whole-government “approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.”

Just like President Franklin Roosevelt’s government-led Works Progress Administration (WPA) of 1933–39, this proposal is a direct response to the complex and persistent disparities society faces today.  It makes a commitment to addressing them through comprehensive and substantive action, centering the people hardest hit. The plan promises a shift from awareness to action--an explicit articulation of a new “New Deal.”

The question is, will the intended beneficiaries reap the benefits?

Facially Neutral Policies and Adverse Disparate Impact

Importantly, insights from the WPA reveal who was targeted and who was served by a similar intervention, noting that the decision had been made early on to pay women the same wages as men. Yet families received the bulk of pay from their sons. More recently, an analysis of Small Business Administration data on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) showed “of the 14% of recipients who reported their race, fewer than two percent of Black-owned businesses and only seven percent of Latinx-owned businesses that applied received PPP funding ... compared to 83% of White-owned businesses. As these schisms illustrate, there is often a disconnect between the spirit and implementation of policy.

In addition to being undercapitalized by the PPP in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black business owners experienced an acute decline of 41% in their numbers; Latinx businesses fell by 32%; and Asian businesses dropped by 26%. Compounding these inequities, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), particularly women of color, are being hardest hit by unemployment and job losses.

CNN reported:

“Employers cut 140,000 jobs in December signaling that the economic recovery from the ... pandemic was backtracking. Digging deeper into the data ... a shocking gender gap was revealed: Women accounted for all the job losses, losing 156,000 jobs, while men gained 16,000.”

In February 2021, CNBC reported:

“For White workers, the unemployment rate fell to 5.6% ... below the national rate. But for Black and Hispanic workers, reported jobless rates were 9.9% and 8.5%, respectively, remaining above the U.S. figures, as they have been throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.“

Because equity is a process and an outcome, it will be important for the administration to conduct data and research analyses and ongoing real-time monitoring and evaluation to determine who is most impacted, who must be prioritized and whether impact matches intention. To increase accountability, protecting the right to organize is promising as a means to strengthen workers’ ability to form unions, bargain collectively and engage in collective action without fear of employer retaliation.

The administration’s explicit articulation of who will be targeted for access, opportunity and outcomes demonstrates a marked shift. And, as the WPA review and PPP roll-out showed, detailed guidance on how to implement policies and practices to ensure equitable outcomes is essential.

Poverty to Prosperity

As the poverty and wage charts above reveal, BIPOC people and women are furthest from nearly every indicator of economic justice. Racial and gendered economic disparity data, viewed through indicators of a poverty-to-prosperity continuum -- poverty, wage, debt, asset, funding/investment and wealth – make clear who needs to be prioritized to achieve racial economic and wealth equity through this investment.

The proposal seeks to invest in BIPOC and low-income people and communities by building equitable and sustainable transportation systems, school systems, physical and financial safety measures, while also providing clean drinking water, access to affordable housing and onramps to homeownership. Place-based strategies are vital to individual, family and community financial security and stabilization. But racial and gender inequities in today’s wage and wealth holdings show nothing substitutes for direct resource allocation to the people themselves.

BIPOC people and women have been left behind and held back for far too long, resulting in multigenerational poverty, wage and wealth gaps. To meet the moment, we need systemic solutions rooted in equity to ensure prosperity for all Americans. This proposal calls on Congress to commit targeted, long-term investments to improve our infrastructure by igniting our economy for equity, baking in accountability to equitable practices and outcomes and fostering an ecosystem where the safety, health, and well-being of the people is prioritized. 

Does this plan seem ambitious? It is. It sets a bold vision and plan of action tailored to the assets, strengths and needs of those furthest from justice.