New Deal Unemployment Insurance Also Excludes Agricultural and Domestic Workers

The unemployment insurance provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935, like the old-age insurance provisions, excluded agricultural and domestic workers, disproportionately removing Black workers from coverage. When Black workers lost jobs — at far higher rates than white workers during the Depression — they had no unemployment insurance safety net. State-level administration of relief programs allowed Southern states to discriminate; Black applicants were routinely denied or offered less than white applicants. The exclusions were not corrected until 1954 and later amendments to the Social Security Act.