Blizzard of 2015 Hits Low-Wage Earners Hardest

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Smith School professor Peter Morici says low-wage workers took the economic brunt of the Blizzard of 2015 along the East Coast. “There are numbers beating around that closing the city for a day costs overall about $700 billion," he says. "But remember, a lot  of that lost economic activity gets made up. Folks on Wall Street that manage accounts will get the work done tomorrow. Kids will make up the time in school. They’ll take the regents exams in New York on schedule –- as they always have. … If you work at McDonalds and make $7 per hour and serve a hamburger to Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan, the $7 per hour worker who misses a day of work is very adversely affected. There’s no sick leave to compensate for that. They just don’t get paid."