Essential Data about Essential Work: Data Visualization and Querying Tools for Understanding Maintainers in the Workforce
COVID-19 has forced us to confront critical disparities in the U.S. as upwards of 8 million people have slid into poverty since May, 2020. Many of them fall into the category of “essential workers” whose labor is indispensable to the American economy. We call them “the maintainers” because they provide healthcare, electricity, the Internet, food, water, sewage, and transportation–in short, the critical infrastructure underpinning comfortable lives, even if they themselves do not earn enough to support their families. United For ALICE and The Maintainers highlight this imbalance through distinct but complementary frames.