From a public health perspective, it’s a no-brainer: We need to limit opportunities for people to interact and exchange the new coronavirus. For many, that has meant working from home over the last couple weeks, but a large portion of the workforce doesn’t have that luxury.
In California, all people in nonessential industries have been ordered to stay home. Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Wyoming, and other states have shut down bars and restaurants, and numerous municipalities have followed suit. For the folks working in the service and hospitality industries, the restrictions — which could last weeks — could severely jeopardize their economic future.
Read the rest of our coverage of the novel coronavirus
About 281,000 people filed for unemployment claims last week, and Goldman Sachs believes the figure will jump to 2.25 million this week. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reportedly said nationwide unemployment could hit 20 percent. “I don’t know, really, what I’m going to do for income for the next month,” Boise cook Alexis Rickers told The Idaho Statesman.
Independent contractors could be particularly hard hit. Uber and Lyft drivers illustrate the slippery slope: revenue dips as folks stay at home; a couple missed car payments means no car, and there goes your livelihood.
To better understand how the spread of COVID-19 will disproportionately affect workers, I caught up with Elizabeth Tippett, an expert in employment law at the University of Oregon. We discussed why workers who earn hourly wages are likely to suffer the most during the outbreak, and how Congress’ response is, as she writes in The Conversation, “a confusing mess – legislative Swiss cheese, full of exceptions and gradations.” Our conversation has been edited for clarity.
Jake Bullinger: How is the spread of the virus and social distancing requirements affecting workers in different industries?
Elizabeth Tippett: Independent contractors typically don’t have access to benefits at all. And if you work in the service sector, for example, you face multiple challenges. One of them is that you may be asked to go to work. You have less control over your ability to isolate yourself from others, so it’s a health and safety risk that those workers face in what is providing, essentially, vital services for everybody else.
But you also face the opposite risk: If you make an hourly wage, that’s the only way to be paid. If you’re a restaurant worker and that restaurant cuts hours, that employer could just schedule you for zero hours, or two hours — some minimal amount of time. That may not qualify as sick leave. You’re not saying you can’t come in — you may be ready and willing to come in, but they’re simply not scheduling you. So you’re getting a paycheck hit right there.
These hourly workers are much less likely to have sick leave available, though some states, like Oregon, have sick leave laws. But none of the states’ sick leave laws contemplated schools being closed for weeks.
Workers are in a precarious place right now. That’s why I believe nothing short of aggressive federal action is going to provide relief to workers.
What kind of action?
Well, the paid sick leave bill President Trump signed this week provides wages to workers who, for example, miss work because their child’s school closed for an extended period of time, up to 12 weeks. It also provides for paid sick leave [up to two weeks for most workers sick with COVID-19]. Now, there are a whole bunch of exclusions in that — for example, exclusions for companies with 500 or more employees — but it’s a lot more than what we had.
I do think a national law mandating sick leave is reasonable for all workers. I think it makes sense to amend the Family and Medical Leave Act so it includes public health emergencies like this. It raises the question of whether we need some sort of paid family medical leave in general, and then obviously there are a lot of questions about who has access to health care.
What should states be doing to help struggling workers?
I think they are properly focusing on public health. States have taken action in this area before — California and Washington have paid family leave, and Oregon will soon. But it takes states a long time to roll it out; It took California several years. It would be very complex and challenging for a state to set that up overnight.
What advice do you have for workers right now who receive an hourly wage?
Well, the first thing to do is check your employer’s policies to see what kind of protections you have available, and whether you have any sick leave. If you don’t have any at all, check whether your state offers sick leave-related protections — your employer might not be complying with those.
The other thing: If you can’t come into work, it’s really important to communicate that to your employer. The last thing you want is to be terminated for absenteeism because they don’t know why you’re not there.
We’ve talked primarily about workers, but employers have differing abilities to deal with this, too. How should we be thinking about small businesses that might not have the cash flow to weather this?
I think that, actually, is what Congress was wrestling with. They want to have these protections available, but they’re placing additional costs on businesses that might be hemorrhaging cash right now. I think that’s where some of the exclusions are coming from [businesses with fewer than 50 employees, for instance, can be exempted from the new sick leave requirements]. They don’t want to exacerbate the economic situation while they’re trying to protect workers.
How has the virus response affected you personally?
Obviously, my kids are not at school, so that’s a challenge.
That’s another issue — what can you do if you have kids at home and are a single parent on an hourly wage, or both parents need to go to work?
I mean, this whole thing is a mess. It’s a giant mess, and it’s an emergency. I don’t know — obviously, it’s not good for anyone. But some people are better equipped to handle this than others, and they have more resources.
The consequences of business closures will be very severe. I’m not an expert on the public health aspect of it, but everything I’ve read suggests there is no other other option.
