Lack of Paid Leave Risks Public Health During the Coronavirus Outbreak

Center for American Progress logoA national paid leave policy is urgently needed to address the new coronavirus outbreak and to help protect the health and safety of the population in the future. The increasing spread of the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, is an urgent issue for the health and economic well-being of workers, families, and communities—with more infections and deaths reported in the United States every day.

The coronavirus’ high transmission rate and incubation period of up to 14 days may necessitate people self-quarantining at home for extended periods of time if they are sick with or exposed to the coronavirus in order to curb the spread of the infection; they may also be forced to stay home if their workplace or child’s school or child care provider closes because the outbreak worsens. This places workers in an impossible bind if they do not have access to paid leave. An estimated 32.5 million individuals—or 27 percent of private sector workers—in the United States lack access to a single paid sick day to recover from an illness such as COVID-19 or to care for a sick family member without losing their job or their paycheck. Low-income and service-sector workers—who are disproportionately women—and Latinx workers are the least likely to have access to paid sick leave. Continue reading “Lack of Paid Leave Risks Public Health During the Coronavirus Outbreak”

For the first time, most new working-age hires in the U.S. are people of color

Washington Post logoWhen Mónica Hernández told her husband that her 2019 New Year’s resolution was to go back to work, he was surprised. He kept asking her if that’s what she really wanted to do. She had been out of the workforce for a year after a difficult pregnancy and the birth of their first child.

“I want to put my brain to use,” Hernández told her husband. “Now my son is here, and it makes me want to do even more.”

Hernández, 28, landed a job this spring as a part-time receptionist at Impressions Pediatric Therapy in Maryland, making her part of a surge of Hispanic and African American women who are entering the workforce amid one of the hottest labor markets in U.S. history.

View the complete September 9 article by Heather Long and Andrew Van Dam on The Washington Post website here.