Low- to Moderate Income Workers Face Brunt of Climate Change Effects

Workers in the U.S. earning low to moderate incomes, particularly Black, Hispanics and women, are being severely impacted by climate change, making it harder for them to maintain financial stability in retirement, according to Commonwealth’s October 2023 survey, “Feeling the Heat: Climate Change’s Impact on Worker Financial Security.”

The survey found that 58% of Black workers and 52% of Hispanic workers had their work impacted by extreme or unusual weather in the last year, compared with 46% of white workers. Climate change is also impacting the financial situation of Black (42%) and Hispanic (32%) workers more than that of white workers (26%). Additionally, 33% of women have struggled to save for emergency expenses, compared with 26% of men.

“The financial impact of climate change on workers earning low and moderate incomes goes well beyond the individual,” the report stated. “It impacts their workplace, their community, their financial institution, and ultimately society as a whole. With the disproportionate financial impact on workers who are Black, Latinx, and women, climate events also threaten to continue widening the racial and gender wealth gaps.”

Almost half of workers (46%) surveyed are not confident they could financially recover if unusual or extreme weather were to impact them tomorrow. Respondents surveyed said their emergency savings (30%), ability to pay off debt (28%), retirement savings (18%), have been impacted by climate change.

“Friends and family came to the rescue—but institutions need to do more in the future,” the report’s forward stated. “Among those who were affected by extreme weather, support by family and friends was cited more frequently (24%) than support by government, community groups, financial institutions, or other groups. When asked whom they’d like to see providing support, the results were very different.”

Those surveyed would have preferred more support from government, community organizations and financial institutions. Among respondents, 80% called for some sort of expanded employer response such as paid time off, flexibility in work schedules, financial resources and extended time off.

Overall, workers harmed by extreme weather identified its negative impact on, in order, their work (70%), education (55%), financial situation (54%), home or living situation (52%), financial opportunities (49%) and, finally, health (47%).

Almost all respondents (93%) reported experiencing unusual or extreme weather due to climate change. In the last 12 months, survey participants reported personally experiencing high levels of pollution (74%), extended heat waves (53%), extreme cold weather or freezes (51%), droughts (48%), wildfires (46%) and other extreme weather.

In 2022, the U.S. experienced 18 separate climate disasters, each costing more than $1 billion in damages, for a total close to $200 billion. The report noted that this tally—resulting from the major events only—still greatly underestimates the true cost of climate change.

Commonwealth surveyed 1,200 workers in the U.S. with household incomes between $30,000 and $80,000.