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The size of a person’s bank account might predict just how often they’ll be washing their hands, wearing a mask or running out to do errands during the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s according to a study released Monday that delves into the demographics behind the steps people are taking — or not taking — to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Slicing the earnings ladder into five segments, researchers found:
• A person in the top-earning segment, averaging $233,895, was almost 54% more likely to engage in social distancing and 33% more likely to increasingly wash their hands and wear a mask than someone making an average of $13,775. Social distancing involves steps like staying six feet apart from other people in public, avoiding public spaces, running fewer errands outside the house and taking fewer visits with friends and family.
The behavior gaps narrowed as the income gaps narrowed, according to the sample of approximately 1,000 people, split between residents in New York, Florida, Texas and California.
• For example, the same person in the top-earning segment was 12.4% more likely to socially distance themselves than someone making $63,572. At the same time, people in both income bands said they were wearing masks and increasingly washing their hands at the same rate.
“High income is associated with higher levels of self-protective behaviors,” wrote the authors at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Vermont, the European University Institute, Seoul National University and the University of Exeter Business.
The National Bureau of Economic Research released the study on Monday.
It’s another look at the pandemic’s uneven effects. On one end, many low-income workers — if they haven’t lost their job — have no choice but to keep walking out their door and interacting with other people to get a paycheck. On the other side, higher earners can often work from home, buy pools for their backyard and, in an extreme example, stay away from crowds by staying aboard their yacht.
“ ‘It’s less burdensome for people to engage in these behaviors when they have more money.’ ”
“It’s less burdensome for people to engage in these behaviors when they have more money,” said Professor Nicholas Papageorge, one of the authors, an economist at Johns Hopkins University. It’s easier to get away from other people, for example, if you have access to a deck, a balcony or a backyard, he noted.
Some findings raised more questions for Papageorge, like the increasing likelihood of mask wearing among higher-income people. After all, a mask isn’t an expensive thing to buy, compared to a pool or a faraway vacation. It might be a question of different demographics having different views on the masks, he said.
For example, black poll participants were 13% more likely to wear masks than white poll participants, the study said. “There is an association between race and more mask wearing and hand washing. I can’t explain why that is, but it’s certainly something that pops out,” he said.
It may be because members of the black community have experienced the outbreak differently than their white counterparts. Black people with coronavirus are more likely to be hospitalized and die than whites, other researchers have shown, and black Americans are most likely to have a family member or close friend who has died from the virus, a recent poll found.
“ Though the rich are taking more ‘self protective’ measures, the trend isn’t uniform. ”
The new study shows a pattern of people with more money taking more protective measures, but it’s not uniform.
Texas residents were 16% less likely than Californians to practice social distancing and Florida residents were 12% less likely.
The survey was conducted in late April, when those states were reopening as New York and California imposed tight social distancing rules. Texas’ stay-at-home order expired April 30 and Florida started the first phase of its reopening on May 4. (Florida and Texas have now seen a recent uptick in cases.)
Both states also lean more to the right than New York and California. By late April, 46% of Republicans told Gallup pollsters they were always practicing social distancing, down four percentage points from mid-April. In that same time, 69% of Democrats said they were sticking with social distancing, down one point from the middle of the month. Masks have become an especially touchy topic that’s fraught with politics.
“ People in lower income brackets braced to lose up to a quarter of their income in this study. ”
Men were 15% less likely than women to engage in social distancing, a finding that jibes with other studies on the male view of precautions against the pandemic. Another study said men, more than women, regarded masks as a sign of weakness.
One trend held true across the five income groups: lower earners braced to lose more money as the pandemic ravaged the economy. People earning anywhere between the $13,775 and $63,572 averages said they were bracing to lose up to a quarter off all their household earnings. In comparison, people in the top and second-highest income tier expected to lose around 15% of their household income.
Economic consequences for smaller incomes have been devastating. Approximately 40% of all jobs paying less than $40,000 in February were gone in March, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
