Treat essential workers with respect
The COVID19 pandemic has made plain just how important the work of retail, grocery and food service workers is. Their jobs put them at greater risk now, but those same jobs were challenging even before the virus.
As employers, policymakers and others seek to rebuild our economy, we must seize the opportunity to reimagine how we treat workers who are essential today and tomorrow. This includes addressing low wages, restrictions on paid sick leave and unpredictable and unstable work schedules. We also need to examine inequities in job conditions across racial/ethnic and gender groups.
For four years, we have studied the precarious conditions of lowwage work in the service sector — something only exacerbated by the COVID19 pandemic. Our new report on California makes one thing certain: These workers may be called “essential,” but employers largely don’t treat them that way.
Our data provide a sobering look at the risk and uncertainty that these workers faced during relatively good economic times before COVID. Now we must ask how policymakers and employers can improve conditions amid a public health crisis. Increasing wages is important but not the only step in renewing our social contract with essential workers.
One of the most pressing tasks is fixing uncertain work schedules. Our data show that just 1 in 5 California retail and food service workers reports a regular day shift, while most face instability in scheduling. These employees often have schedules that vary by week and even by day, with little advance notice and even less employee control.
Many must work “clopening” shifts — closing the store and then returning in a few hours for an opening shift. Such schedules lead to unhealthy sleep, depression and less time with family.
Our data also reveal striking inequality. For example, in California, women of color in the service sector experience the highest levels of work schedule instability and involuntary parttime work: Black women are 23% more likely and Latinas 37% more likely than white men to report being involuntarily part time.
A focus on racial disparities is important, and changes for all shift workers would dramatically improve working conditions for women and people of color. Multiple sectors can play a role.
Legislation could move the needle on work schedule instability, unpredictability and insufficiency. Seattle’s 2017 Secure Scheduling Ordinance mandated that service sector workers receive at least two weeks’ notice of their schedules, and our evaluation shows that the law is working. California and the nation can replicate this.
Employers can take the high road by ensuring more advance notice of shift schedules. Companies including Costco, Trader Joe’s and Home Depot provide most employees at least two weeks of notice and also have fewer employees who report being involuntarily part time.
But, “raising the floor” and pushing companies to “take the high road” takes work. Organizations such as the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the National Partnership for Working Families that advocate for policies to improve conditions for working families play a key role in making change. Californians can also urge elected officials to raise the floor and deploy their spending power to push companies to take the high road.
We will continue to rely on essential workers in the service sector. Improved wages and paid sick leave are critical to ensuring our supply chain stays strong and our basic needs are met.
But equally important is improving scheduling and predictability of work, so that our essential workers receive the dignity and job stability they deserve.
Kristen Harknett is associate professor of sociolog y at UCSF and codirector of the nonprofit Shift Project. Daniel Schneider is Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and codirector of the Shift Project.