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, again disproportionately removing Black workers from coverage. This meant that 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 administer benefits discriminatorily; Black applicants were routinely denied or offered less than white applicants for identical situations. The exclusions were not corrected until the 1954 and later amendments to the Social Security Act.