Cashiers and bartenders each earn a median of $11.40 an hour, and waitresses make a median $11 per hour, according to data from the Labor Department – making it likely that workers had little savings to rely on during the crisis. In some parts of the country, these wages are much lower.

“Women who were employed in these sectors were already hanging on by a thread and many of them were single mothers or primary breadwinners for their family,” said C. Nicole Mason, president and chief executive of the Institute for Women’s Policy.

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