We Need to Pay Our Essential Healthcare Workers Living Wages
Our colleagues deserve to live with dignity
It’s 7 AM, and I head into the hospital coffee shop to grab breakfast. I chat with Mimi at the register and ask how her mother is doing. When I texted Mimi a few days earlier, she had told me that she was working long hours to pay for groceries to be delivered to her mother.
Naively, I suggested that she look into the free grocery delivery services that exist for elderly people in Boston. She responded, “Oh actually, my mom lives in Trinidad, and I have to mail her the groceries, so it’s very expensive.”
In early April, Mimi started wearing surgical masks before it was a hospital-wide policy for every employee to wear one. I watched her ask the customer in front of me to stand farther away as she tried to scan a bag of chips from a distance.
Curious, I asked her if she felt safe working behind the cash register. She replied, “Not really. I wish I had a barrier between me and the customers, they get too close.” I jokingly said she should tell me her boss’s name so that I could email him to request a plexiglass protective box around her cash register. She laughed along.
Afterward, I went home and emailed him. A few weeks later, thankfully, she was granted the plexiglass box. At that time, the hospital was in full “coronavirus mode,” with all patients and visitors required to wear masks.
As physicians, we took an oath to protect our patients and to care for those who are the most vulnerable in our communities. We have been honored to serve patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, and are grateful to work in a profession that is not only purposeful and well-respected but also well-paid.
Many of our colleagues who, like us, have worked extra hours and risked their lives to serve our communities, are not so lucky. Custodians, clerks, transport workers, valets, personal care assistants, food service workers, and many others are vital to the safe and effective functioning of our hospitals.
However, many are paid what amount to poverty wages for a major city like Boston, with starting wages of $13/hr.
Mimi’s predicament exemplifies the experience of frontline essential workers, who are disproportionately immigrants and people of color. They are our first line of defense against COVID-19, and also feel the greatest economic impact of the outbreak.
Underpayment and underappreciation of our colleagues is a problem that pre-dates the coronavirus. Nationally, over 1 million healthcare workers, disproportionately women of color, and their families live in poverty. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made this injustice particularly salient, as our colleagues risk their lives to keep our hospitals running while receiving wages that do not allow them to properly feed, clothe, nor house themselves and their families.
Moreover, many do not have a choice in the risks they are taking; social distancing and working from home are privileges. Underpaid essential workers put their lives at risk not only at work but also on their way to work, as many must use public transit for their commute.
Coronavirus is not the great equalizer it was initially claimed to be; Black, Latinx, and other workers of color are disproportionately affected due to structural discrimination such as redlining, mass incarceration, lack of educational and employment opportunities, leading to higher rates of low-wage essential worker roles.
That these working-class individuals are disproportionately immigrants and people of color is not just a historical accident; the pandemic’s impact, and the risks taken by essential workers and their households specifically, highlight the systemic racism that intertwines with economic injustice in our society.
Data from our hospital system shows that the custodial and food services staff, who are disproportionately people of color and/or non-English speaking, are testing positive for COVID at higher rates than other groups of workers.
While they face substantial health risks, many workers like Mimi have to work extra shifts to be able to support their families during this pandemic. If Mimi stopped working, she would lose the income she needs to feed her mother. She would also lose healthcare coverage; nearly half of low-wage workers rely on employer-based health insurance. Many were already financially insecure prior to the pandemic and would be unable to pay for health care costs if they become ill.
Marginalized communities are afraid to ask for the resources that they need, regardless of how badly they need and deserve them.
Mimi cannot demand an increase in wages for fear of being fired. We request for her and her coworkers that the minimum wage for all essential workers be raised to a living wage for a family of four with one working adult, (which would be $32.00/hour in Boston).
Our colleagues deserve to live with dignity as they work tirelessly to provide safe and clean hospitals.
Sunny Kung, MD and Kathryn Himmelstein, MD
We are internal medicine resident physicians at academic medical centers in Boston (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, respectively) who are working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
