Reparations: An Estimate of the Consequences of Denying Social Security to Agricultural and Domestic Workers

Abstract

Initial provisions of the 1935 Social Security Act excluded disproportionately minority agricultural and domestic workers, occupational groups not enrolled in Social Security until the early 1950s. This article estimates the economic value of the exclusion of these workers, in addition to considering subsequent policy developments, especially welfare reform in 1996 and healthcare reform in 2010. The exclusion of unskilled workers in the South and Southwest from a public pension during the early years of Social Security not only reflects a pattern of denying benefits that continues, but also contributes to the call for reparations.