The U.S. Labor Market During the Beginning of the Pandemic Recession
Using data from the nation’s largest payroll processor from February through May, this paper finds that employment losses were disproportionately concentrated among low-income workers while wage cuts were disproportionately concentrated among workers in the top two deciles of the wage distribution. The percent of workers receiving wage cuts was roughly twice that reported during the Great Recession.
Tomaz Cajner et al., National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 27159
June, 2020