Paid Sick Leave Flattens the Curve
Low-wage workers need paid sick leave now. The alternative is a permanent state of emergency
Gig and platform work is essential to logistics and service provision in this pandemic while we are asked to stay at home. However, we are only able to do so because grocery workers stock shelves, warehouse workers pack and sort products, pharmacy technicians fill prescriptions, and restaurant workers prepare meals that gig workers then deliver to our homes.
We’ve always relied on these workers, but it took this crisis for national leaders to finally take steps to mandate 80 hours of paid sick leave. However, this legislation is temporary, sorely limited in its coverage, and not enough to control the spread of COVID-19.
Given the false choice between their health and their livelihood, workers went to work ill.
In 2016, I was part of a coalition working to pass a paid sick leave policy in the City of Los Angeles. At the time, it was not an especially “sexy” campaign, but even then, the need for paid sick leave was obvious. Workers told us that missing a day of work could mean not being able to pay the electric bill. In some cases, missing work due to sickness could lead to termination. Given the false choice between their health and their livelihood, workers went to work ill. The City of Los Angeles ultimately passed a policy giving all workers up to six paid sick days along with raising the minimum wage. It’s one of only a few dozen municipalities to guarantee paid sick leave.
In the midst of a global pandemic, demand on grocery stores, warehouses, and delivery is creating even more pressure on workers to produce more, and faster. But workplace protections were already weak, and still don’t require that employers change workplace conditions to protect workers.
It is nearly impossible to separate sickness from work in this current moment. But the reality is, it never was separate. This is most visible among delivery, food-chain, and warehouse workers. This workforce has grown in response to the pandemic and will likely expand after it’s over. Instacart and Amazon have both announced that they will hire hundreds of thousands of workers. At Amazon, however, more than 4,500 workers signed a petition demanding access to sick leave that they were promised, but never received. According to Coworker.org, a platform for worker initiated petitions, there are over 100 worker-led campaigns demanding employers like REI, Whole Foods, and Starbucks provide them with basic protections. And despite promises to protect workers, The New York Times discovered that Uber drivers must jump through hoops and endure long waits to get relief. Drivers quickly realized the process for filing claims was set up to be onerous.
These experiences are not universal but still illustrate the difference between having a basic right, versus having to appeal to the “good graces” of employers, and the gaps this creates in the larger effort to keep everyone safe.
It is nearly impossible to separate sickness from work in this current moment. But the reality is, it never was separate.
Unfortunately, the growing crisis and rising tide of worker action is coming at a time when federal policy is minimizing employers’ responsibility. In January, the Department of Labor issued a final rule that significantly limited liability for corporations that use temp agencies, contractors, and those structured as franchises. Employers, including platform companies that treat workers as independent contractors, will continue to lay the responsibility on workers who are ill-equipped to protect their own and public health. In times of crisis, this creates a situation wherein coverage is sporadic and inconsistent, hindering the public’s ability to contain a pandemic.
The federal response to the crisis, thus far, has been to pass two emergency bills. The first one, called the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, requires employers to provide paid sick and family leave for workers who are affected by the pandemic. However, the act contains loopholes large enough to house an Amazon fulfillment center: There are exemptions for businesses with over 500 employees and those with 50 or fewer. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, companies with 500 or more employees made up 47% of total private sector employment, and include large corporations like McDonald’s and Walmart. In a further twist, the act allows companies to count contractors as employees to meet the larger threshold; something corporations are loath to do otherwise. Independent contractors—which most gig workers are—are not covered at all.
The upshot of all these exemptions is that instead of covering a potential 90% of private sector workers, The New York Times estimates only 20% of workers will be covered. While Republicans demanded these exemptions, Democrats did little to defend the idea that paid leave should be a basic right, instead punting the issue by saying employers should “step up to the plate.” This attitude fails to understand the lack of power low-wage workers have to make demands on companies that won’t “step up.” Paid sick leave is an economic and health lifeline at all times, not just during a global pandemic. Meanwhile, low-wage workers have to contend with employers’ false belief that they cannot be “trusted” with sick leave.
Paid sick leave is an economic and health lifeline at all times, not just during a global pandemic.
As the pandemic progresses, Americans are waking up to the critical role that service workers play in the daily functioning of society, and are calling on employers and governments to take action, regardless of whether companies recognize workers as employees or not. In fact, even before the pandemic, a National Partnership on Women and Families survey showed that 80% of Americans supported a federal paid leave program. That said, few people felt any urgency to rally for the change because the consequences were experienced mainly by low-wage workers and their families. During this pandemic, the class divide is hard to miss when we see who gets to stay safe at home and who does not.
Workers are not waiting for their employers to “step up” where regulators are reluctant to govern. Auto workers in the American South are demanding companies shut down plants and change cleaning protocols when someone tests positive for coronavirus. Grocery workers are asking for extended paid sick days and hazard pay for the constant deluge of customers. Detroit transit workers stopped working to demand the transit authority implement more stringent protocols to protect drivers and passengers. Low-wage workers are in precarious conditions not because their work doesn’t have value, but because they don’t have power. That may be changing.
Low-wage workers are in precarious conditions not because their work doesn’t have value, but because they don’t have power. That may be changing.
Employers claim that workers are one of their top priorities, but don’t back that up by offering paid sick leave, thereby revealing a truer and deeply ingrained attitude that worker health is ultimately not their problem. But as COVID-19 has revealed, it is their problem–because it is a shared, collective problem with direct effects across a chain of workers, employers, and consumers.
The United States is one of only a few developed nations without a national paid sick leave policy or universal healthcare. Even the World Health Organization recognizes the importance of paid sick leave for public health. After this pandemic passes, the seasonal flu will return, another crisis will likely arise, and precarious working conditions won’t go away, leaving these workers in the same situation. Left with few options, essential workers are demanding employers protect their health, with the support of consumers, and arguing that worker and public health cannot be separated. Regulators should be making the same demands of employers. Regulators should look at the leadership being presented by workers who are seizing this moment to define what a better future of work can look like after the pandemic.
Aiha Nguyen is the Program Director of the Labor Futures Initiative at Data & Society.
