COVID-19 Resources

Workers

ERA’s free legal help & advice helpline

Please note: Unfortunately, our free legal advice helpline for workers is temporarily closed due to capacity. (April 2021)

Online resources

• Information on stimulus checks, tax credits, and financial resources for low-income people (Source: White House)
  • En español
  • Chinese 中文
• Resources for unemployed and front-line workers.
• Comprehensive resources for front line public service workers. (Source: AFSCME)
• Legal Aid at Work has updated its FAQs for workers to include COVID-related information.
• Updated worker safety and health toolkit. (Source: National Employment Law Project)
• Women comprise a significant portion of small business owners, and they are seeing their businesses shutter abruptly. See a round-up of small business resources here. (Source: Small Business Majority)
• Two resources to support workers experiencing the uptick in domestic and intimate partner violence from Workplaces Respond: Click here here for English or aqui en Espanol.
• This is a list of relief funds accessible to undocumented workers in California. (New funds are being created, so this will likely be a living document.

Reports & Studies

• From National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum: “AAPI Women 3x More Likely to Report Racist Discrimination Than Men Over Last Week” citing a new study by the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council and Chinese for Affirmative Action.
• Women of color and their families need safe and stable employment and financial security. This pandemic inflames the caregiving crisis at work and at home; exacerbates the discriminatory workplace barriers women of color face; and threatens their health due to racism and structural health disparities. A new report, On the Frontlines at Work and at Home: The Disproportionate Economic Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Women of Color, from the Center for American Progress.
• Workers need workplaces to be safe. Here are recommendations from NELP’s new brief, Protecting Worker Safety & Health in the COVID Crisis: A State & Local Model Policy Response.
• Understanding the impact of critical provisions of COVID-19 relief bills on immigrant communities. (Source: National Immigration Law Center)
• There is a new study on unemployment and reduced work. A couple of significant takeaways
• Stark view of the devastating impact of Coronavirus on working women. Three months ago, we were the majority of the US workforce. Overnight, that has changed. (Source: NPR)
• More data on the outsized impact COVID-19 is having on women working on the front lines. (Source: National Women’s Law Center)
• The virus is also highlighting serious gaps in guestworker programs (Source: Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc.)

Families

• Information on stimulus checks, tax credits, and financial resources for low-income people (Source: White House)
• The Children’s Defense Fund has a list of priorities for supporting children and families.   
• A new resource page from Legal Voice
• Childcare is essential for working families and key to a thriving economy. This is a new issue brief from NWLC and CLASP.
• For our older community members, it’s important to know Social Security recipients will receive those Relief Rebates without filing a tax return. (Source: AARP)
• Our friends at NWLC has a short explainer on those Relief Rebates (those $1200 relief checks from the government). (Source: National Women’s Law Center)
• Join a webinar from the National Employment Law Project on April 13 (12 pm ET/3 pm PT), Resources to Support Workers During the Coronavirus Pandemic. The webinar will discuss unemployment insurance, federal legislation, and what it means for workers.
• National Partnership published a new briefing on the significant and rapid expansion of access to paid sick days and paid leave in the federal response to COVID-19, despite some significant limitations in the policy. (Source: National Partnership for Women & Families)
• With 78% of people in the US living paycheck to paycheck, families have urgent questions and need dependable answers regarding the benefits they have, or don’t have. Paid Leave US includes the latest information about the availability of paid family and medical leave (whether through the newest federal package, state programs, some of the top employers) and information for employers interested in updating their policies. (Source: Paid Leave US)
• More policy-oriented resources about medical, caregiving leave including an issue brief co-authored with Jack Smalligan and Chantel Boyens of the Urban Institute; its accompanying factsheets on medical leave and caregiving leave; an updated broader fact sheet on paid leave research; Sam Abbott’s blog post “Research shows paid leave is needed to protect families, workers, and businesses during the coronavirus recession and beyond”; and a helpful tweet thread here, also from Sam Abbott. (Source: Washington Center for Equitable Growth):
• Resources from a Better Balance regarding the paid leave portions of the federal legislation.
• Resources from NELP on the unemployment insurance (UI) provisions in the federal legislation: