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more likely to have reported struggling with food insecurity compared to households with <br />income above 300 percent FPL.101 Similarly, low- and moderate -income households reported <br />being housing insecure102 at rates more than twice as high as higher -income households, and <br />low- and moderate -income households reported housing quality hardship103 at rates statistically <br />significantly greater than the rate for higher -income households.104 The economic crisis caused <br />by the pandemic worsened economic outcomes for workers in many low- and moderate -income <br />households. Industries that employed low -wage workers experienced a disproportionate level of <br />job loss. For example, from February 2020 to February 2021, the hospitality and leisure industry <br />lost nearly 3.5 million jobs.105 While the entire industry was impacted, 72 percent of the job <br />losses occurred in the lowest wage service occupations compared to only a 6 percent rate of job <br />loss in the highest wage management and finance jobs.'°6 Similar trends exist in other heavily <br />impacted industries. In public education, the lowest wage occupations, service and transportation <br />jobs, saw a job loss rate of 20 and 26 percent, respectively.107 During that same time period, the <br />highest wage occupations in public education, management, actually saw jobs increase by 7 <br />percent.1 °8 <br />101 Kyle J Casewell and Stephen Zuckerman, Food Insecurity, Housing Hardship, <br />and Medical Care Utilization, Urban Institute (June 2018), available at <br />https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/98701/2001 8 96_foodinsecurity_housinghar dship_medicalcareu <br />tilization_finalized.pdf <br />102 Housing insecurity is defined as not paying the full amount of rent or mortgage and/or utility bills <br />(gas, oil, or electricity) sometime in the previous 12 months. <br />103 Housing quality hardship is defined as an affirmative response to one or more questions related to problems with <br />a respondent's physical dwelling: pests and/or insects; leaking roof or ceiling; windows that are broken or cannot <br />shut; exposed electrical wires; broken plumbing (toilet, hot water, other); holes in walls, ceiling, or floor; no <br />appliances (refrigerator or stove); and no phone (of any kind). <br />104 Id. <br />105 Elise Gould and Melat Kassa. Low -wage, low -hours workers were hit hardest in the COVID-19 recession: The <br />State of Working America 2020 employment report, Economic Policy Institute (May 2021), available at <br />https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-2020-employment-report/. <br />106 Id <br />107 Id. <br />108 Id. <br />76 <br />