We are essential workers.

We are the people who have kept the world running through the COVID-19 pandemic — and long before. We have provided crucial medical care, taken care of children and the elderly, sold and delivered your food and so much more.

We are the backbone of our communities and the global economy. And yet, the global recovery from COVID-19 threatens to leave us behind.

Sixty-one percent of workers globally work in the informal economy. These workers lost significant portions of their income when the pandemic hit. By June 2020, workers in the informal economy were, on average, making just 55 percent of their pre-pandemic earnings.

In the formal economy, care workers are also struggling, with a majority reporting they do not earn enough to provide basic needs — housing, food, transportation — for their family.

We’re coming together to lay out a vision for a just economic recovery that ensures protections for workers and advances workers’ rights.