COVID-19 and the role of businesses in a public health crisis

It’s no secret that low-wage, hourly workers often can’t afford necessary medication, doctors’ appointments, mental health care or diabetes treatment because of their lack of health care, stagnant wages and lack of paid sick time. 

While these realities are often ignored because of how they primarily impact the individual employee, public health concerns like the flu and COVID-19 raise major questions about how these problems impact public health as well. 

New York Times health policy reporter Sarah Kliff is one of many journalists writing about this issue right now and talking to Americans who are facing large medical bills due to the coronavirus — even if they were held in mandatory hospital isolation for being suspected of having the virus. Yesterday Kliff highlighted two Americans in this situation who now owe $2,700 in outstanding medical bills. 

While the federal government has the authority to quarantine patients if officials believe them to be a public health threat, the government doesn’t have to pay for it, noted Kaiser Health News. 

As Kliff pointed out in another story, high-earning professionals have the luxury of being able to afford care for these serious public health concerns, but workers like retail/restaurant employees, gig workers and child care workers often do not have the same luxury. An excerpt:

For many workers, being sick means choosing between staying home and getting paid. One-quarter of workers have no access to paid sick days, according to Labor Department data: two-thirds of the lowest earners but just 6 percent of the highest earners. Just a handful of states and local governments have passed sick leave laws.

Only 60 percent of workers in service occupations can take paid time off when they are ill — and they are also more likely than white-collar workers to come in contact with other people’s bodies or food.

“When you’re talking about paid leave and who should stay home, it’s the ones who need it most that don’t have access to it, the ones showing up at work sick touching your food, touching your bags, coming into everyday contact with your direct life,” said Kris Garcia, 43, an airport worker in Denver.

She also quoted Dr. James Hadler, Connecticut’s former state epidemiologist, who mentioned that viruses like this circulate a lot faster in the poorer communities than the wealthiest ones.

Meanwhile, presenteeism is another reason employees come in sick. Even if they have sick days or PTO days, an unhealthy workplace culture might prevent them from taking days off even if they’re sick. 

Here’s my call to action for Workforce readers: I want to talk to people like COOs, CHROs, CFOs or front-line managers of organizations that employ hourly/low-wage workers. From your point of view, what can you do to make sure that employees can access the care they need, afford the care they need and not miss out on a much-needed paycheck? What can you do as an employer of low-wage workers to help protect your employees and protect public health? And what normal business goals might have to be temporarily set aside in order to address a public health issue of this scale — whether it’s the more common flu or the pandemic COVID-19?

Reach out to me if you have opinions on this, and we can get a conversation started on what the business sector’s role is in a public health crisis.