Alabama is the worst state in the nation to work in during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey out that rates the states based on their policies to protect working families.
Oxfam America, a nonprofit agency dedicated to ending poverty, used 27 different data points in three areas of state assistance - worker protections, healthcare protections and unemployment support.
Alabama ranked 52 - dead last - in a survey that included the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. It also ranked last in unemployment services, 49th in healthcare and 48th in worker protections.
“The pandemic has exacerbated challenges facing low-wage working families in the US—but it did not create them,” Minor Sinclair, Oxfam America’s U.S. domestic program director said. “Instead, it has revealed the ugly reality of deep, structural problems for millions of working families who risk falling into poverty, hunger, and homelessness.”