What is the Excluded Workers Fund?

In early April of 2021, New York State lawmakers passed the new state budget. This budget looked a little different from those in the past in that it included a “first-in-the-nation” Excluded Workers Fund in order to provide some economic relief to those who were excluded from unemployment, stimulus checks, as well as other COVID-19-specific support such as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The fund gained  support in the Democratic-controlled State Senate and Assembly, especially among progressive lawmakers who had argued for relief for excluded workers through out the pandemic (Correal & Ferreé-Sadurní, 2021). It has inspired similar funds in states across the nation from New Jersey to Washington (Mora, 2021). The EWF was put into place “to provide financial assistance to New Yorkers who suffered the loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic and who were also excluded from federal assistance programs” (Parra, 2021).  The fund officially opened on August 1 and soon received hundreds of thousands of applications, mostly from undocumented workers. The majority of excluded workers are those who live undocumented in this country, however eligibility is also based on hours worked, loss of 50% or more of wages or income due to the pandemic, location of residence, loss of a breadwinner in the family, and amount of earnings in general during the pandemic. The $2.1 billion fund provides one-time payments to eligible individuals. There are two tiers of compensation based on the documents that an applicant provides: the first tier provides up to $15,600 in benefits (minus taxes) and the second tier provides up to $3,200 in benefits (minus taxes). (Department of Labor, 2021). Many advocates argue that this tiered system is exclusionary as the higher tier is reserved only for applicants who have proof of employment through tax returns, wage statements, or a letter from an employer (Mora, 2021). For many workers, such as day laborers or street vendors, proof of employment is impossible and so they are unable to receive more than the $3,200 in benefits (Mora, 2021).

However, as of October 8th, 2021, just 3 months after it opened, the fund ceased to take new applications due to insufficient funds. As of October 8th, 1.2 billion had been allocated to applicants, and applications were still coming in (Fund Excluded Workers, 2021). Today, applications allegedly continue to be processed in the order that they were received until the fund is completely exhausted  (Fund Excluded Workers, 2021).  However, the Department of Labor makes no promises that there will be enough funds to cover applications sent in after September 24th.  Since the fund’s closure, many applicants are still in limbo regardless of when they submitted their application and there is no assurance that many will receive funds, especially for applicants who have had to appeal their cases or a re-review process. As of Wednesday, November 10th, 130,684 applications had been approved for assistance under the fund—close to $2 billion—out of 350,823 petitions (Parra, 2021). Many many applicants still wait in limbo, and may never hear back from the Department of Labor about their application at all.

The number of people in our country who fall into the “excluded workers” category is large. As a “country of immigrants”, it is important to note that between 10.5 and 12 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. today (3.2% – 3.6% of the population) and about 8% work in the service sector – in hotels, delivering food, or in caretaking roles (Sönmez et al., 2020, p. 3). There are approximately 500,000 undocumented people living in just New York City alone (Yee, 2021).  Governor Kathy announced in October of this year that 120,000 applications have been accepted for the fund, coming out to the allocation of $1.2 billion in benefits so far (New York State Government, 2021).  With 500,000 people living undocumented in just New York City alone, it is clear to see how vital it is to increase the fund’s budget so that a larger portion of excluded workers can receive much needed financial support during a pandemic that does not seem to be ceasing.

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