TITLE:
COVID-19 and Socio-Economic Inequalities among Workers in Ghana
AUTHORS:
MacNamara Peter-Brown
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19, Coronavirus, Employment, Inequality, Socioeconomic
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
20,
2022
ABSTRACT: In this paper, the causative evidence of COVID-19 and its socio-economic
effect on Ghanaian workers are presented. The analysis takes into account the exact
policy environment, in which stringent measures were announced and executed in
two geographically delimited zones, bringing the major metropolitan centers to
a halt, while less stringent controls were in place throughout the country. The
effect of the pandemic on the economy was explored by employing discourse
analysis and data from secondary sources to determine the effect of the virus
from a Ghanaian perspective. The general finding of the study was that the
pandemic has caused fiscal imbalances and worsened the level of inequality
among workers. The findings revealed that the pandemic has had a negative
effect on the socio-economic condition of Ghanaian workers particularly those in the informal
sector. The loss of employment and reduced labour wages during the pandemic
increased income inequality and eroded the gains made to reduce poverty. The
study cites an instance where the country’s tourism sector lost $171 million in the
last quarter of 2020 as a result of the measures taken to contain the coronavirus.
This accounted partially for an estimated 42,000 individuals losing their jobs during the first two
months of the pandemic. Again, 46 percent of businesses claimed to have cut
salaries for 25.7 percent of their overall workforce, resulting in wage cuts
for an estimated 770,124 people. The analysis from the study indicates that
Ghana can turn the obstacles provided by the pandemic into prospects and
opportunities by investing heavily in the health sector and providing strategic
support to SMEs, which provides a large number of jobs for Ghanaians.
Essentially, the lockdown effect highlighted the need to adopt effective
strategies to mitigate vulnerabilities and labor market
inequalities among women and individuals in the informal space. The research is
exploratory and relies on secondary data. Therefore, conducting a study using
primary data sources from certain towns or regions across the country is likely
to yield different findings and conclusions.