Data for: What Extraordinary Times Tell Us about Ordinary Ones: A Multiple Case Study of Precariously Employed Food Retail and Service Workers in Two U.S. State Contexts during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Project Overview This project consists of a multiple case study of older, precariously employed food workers in two U.S. states (Indiana and Washington) during the COVID-19 pandemic, designed to explore the links between employment quality and social context as drivers of disease prevention. This deposit is of individual semi-structured qualitative data in the form of de-identified and generalized transcripts of the interviews conducted.
Data and Data Collection Overview We conducted data compilation, document review, and 26 in-depth interviews using a multiple case study design with two states, Indiana and Washington, constituting the cases (Stake, 2005). For each case, sources consisted of secondary data regarding state context (e.g., policy landscape and health measures) and semi-structured individual interviews with food retail or service workers. Details on the secondary data sources and indicators used in our analysis are available in a published manuscript associated with this deposit. Participants were recruited and interviewed between January and October 2021. Eligibility for the interviews was limited to English or Spanish-speaking adults, aged 40 years or older, who were employed in food retail or services for at least three months total from when COVID-19 appeared in each state in 2020 until the time of the interview. We originally aimed to recruit workers 50 years and older because risk of severe consequences of COVID-19 increases with age. In order to boost recruitment and prioritize hearing from people who would have deep and nuanced perspectives on our issue of study, we subsequently lowered eligibility to age 40. This allowed us to hear from those in prime working age and those who are older. We set income restrictions to those earning below a living wage in Indiana, defined by MIT’s living wage calculator ($11.04/hour; Glasmeier, 2021), or earning below the minimum wage in Washington ($15.75/hour). We sampled purposively to achieve variety in level of exposure to the public in one’s job, race and ethnicity, sex/gender, and education – factors related to the likelihood for workplace exposures to COVID-19, sociodemographic characteristics important to understanding the experience of precarious employment, and which appear related to COVID-19 severity and consequences. Interviews took place by videoconference (Zoom) or telephone, depending on participant preference. We obtained oral informed consent from all study participants and audio-recorded the conversations with their permission. A transcription generated automatically using Otter.ai was corrected and formatted using the recorded audio. The semi-structured interview guide consisted of open-ended questions about facilitators and barriers to following prevention guidelines, COVID-19 protective measures taken in the workplace, other influences on preventive behaviors, and sources of COVID-19-related information. It also contained a checklist meant to allow the interviewer to delineate workplace preventive efforts described by the participants. Interviews ranged from 53 to 133 minutes and were all completed in English. Interviewees received a $40 gift card for participating.
Selection and Organization of Shared Data We conducted 26 total interviews but three of those are not included in the shared data because the question about consent to share their data had not yet been added to the consent script or the interview guide when those first interviews were conducted. Since those participants did not actively opt out of data sharing, and all others agreed to it explicitly, it is unlikely that there was anything systematically different in the three interviews which are not being shared. Based on the demographic data we have about them, nothing stands out, and the shared sample includes persons with similar characteristics. The data files in this project include the 23 transcripts for which we obtained explicit permission for sharing and a table containing age and gender identity for the 23 interviewees included in this submission. The documentation files include all the study’s recruitment materials, the interview guide / questionnaire, this data narrative and an administrative README file.

项目概述：本项研究系对两个美国州（印第安纳州和华盛顿州）在COVID-19疫情期间的老年不稳定就业食品工人进行的多个案例研究。研究旨在探讨就业质量与社会背景之间在疾病预防方面的联系。本数据存档包含了对所进行的访谈的匿名化和概括性记录，形式为个人半结构化定性数据。

数据和数据收集概述：本研究采用多案例研究设计，对印第安纳州和华盛顿州进行了数据汇编、文献回顾以及26次深入访谈（Stake, 2005）。每个案例的数据来源包括关于州背景的次级数据（例如，政策环境和健康措施）以及与食品零售或服务工人进行的半结构化个人访谈。我们分析中使用的次级数据来源和指标详情可在与此次存档相关的已发表论文中查阅。参与者于2021年1月至10月期间被招募和访谈。访谈资格限于英语或西班牙语为母语且年龄在40岁或以上的成年人，他们自2020年COVID-19在该州出现以来，在食品零售或服务行业至少工作了三个月。最初，我们旨在招募50岁及以上的工人，因为随着年龄的增长，COVID-19严重后果的风险增加。为了提高招募率，并优先听取对本研究问题有深刻而细腻见解的人的意见，我们将资格年龄降低至40岁。这使我们能够听到那些处于最佳工作年龄的人以及年长者的意见。我们设定了收入限制，限制在印第安纳州低于生活工资（由麻省理工学院的生活工资计算器定义，每小时11.04美元；Glasmeier, 2021）或在华盛顿州低于最低工资（每小时15.75美元）的人群。我们有意抽样，以实现工作场所公众接触程度、种族和民族、性别/性别认同和教育水平等方面的多样性——这些因素与COVID-19在工作场所暴露的可能性、理解不稳定就业体验的社会人口统计学特征以及与COVID-19严重程度和后果的相关性有关。访谈通过视频会议（Zoom）或电话进行，具体取决于参与者的偏好。我们从所有研究参与者获得了口头知情同意，并在他们的许可下录音了对话。使用Otter.ai自动生成的转录本经过校正和格式化。半结构化访谈指南包含关于遵守预防指南的促进因素和障碍、工作场所采取的COVID-19防护措施、其他影响预防行为的因素以及COVID-19相关信息来源的开放式问题。它还包含一份清单，旨在使访谈者能够区分受访者描述的工作场所预防措施。访谈时长从53分钟到133分钟不等，均以英语完成。受访者因参与访谈而获得40美元的礼品卡。

共享数据的选取和组织：我们共进行了26次访谈，但由于在最初几次访谈时，关于共享数据同意的问题尚未添加到知情同意脚本或访谈指南中，因此有三次访谈未被包含在共享数据中。由于这些参与者并未主动选择退出数据共享，而其他所有参与者都明确表示同意，因此不太可能是这三次未共享的访谈存在系统性差异。根据我们关于他们的人口统计数据，没有突出之处，共享样本包括具有相似特征的个人。本项目中的数据文件包括我们获得明确共享许可的23份访谈转录本，以及包含23位受访者年龄和性别认同的表格。文档文件包括所有研究的招募材料、访谈指南/问卷、本数据叙述以及管理README文件。