Temporary workers at heightened risk

The greatest challenge from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will be the human toll, which is already unbearable in parts of the world and could be on that trajectory in the United States. There is no modern precedent for the kind of death toll we could be looking at in coming weeks and months, and the after-effects will last for years.

Not to be lost in the chaos are the inevitable economic consequences. Many businesses are closed for indeterminate lengths of time, with no certainty about when life will return to normal. That means no money is coming in, people aren’t receiving paychecks and bills are going unpaid. The federal government has been discussing an aid package for the innumerable suffering businesses, but much more will need to be done.

At special risk are the class of workers who have few protections even in the best of circumstances.

Data varies on the change in the economy over the past decade in the direction of temporary — sometimes called “gig economy” — workers. Certainly Uber and similar companies have not transformed the economy to the extent their backers might have hoped. But there is a clear pattern of companies hiring people as contractors for what would once have been full-time positions. This extends not just to mailroom and custodial duties at big corporations, but even some emergency room physicians at hospitals.

Workers not employed full time have much more difficulty receiving unemployment assistance when they lose their jobs. A payroll-tax cut does nothing for someone who’s not on a payroll. The shift to contract work on a wide scale has helped companies with their bottom lines, but it has left a wide swath of workers vulnerable in a time of crisis.

And a crisis is what we’re facing. As Hearst Connecticut Media columnist Dan Haar wrote, nearly every event planned for more than a handful of people in the near future has been canceled or postponed, leaving thousands without a paycheck. The restaurant industry is in a full-blown crisis, and takeout orders cannot sustain its future for any prolonged period. That means businesses will close, people will lose wages and suffering will be the inevitable result.

The only hope for meaningful aid comes from the federal government, and it can’t be in the form of tax cuts for corporations. People need direct aid, and more than that, the consequences of failing to pay bills need to be put on hold. Already we’ve seen utilities saying they will not shut off service in the event of missed payments; more of that kind of thinking will be necessary to keep people whole.

For now, the priority is to slow the spread of the contagion and limit the human toll. There is still hope to avert the worst, but it will require a massive uptick in testing, which is not yet available. But the economic fallout will arrive quickly, and leaders need to be prepared to act. It may already be too late to avoid a recession, but decisive action will be necessary to keep human suffering to a minimum.

The only hope for meaningful aid comes from the federal government, and it can’t be in the form of tax cuts for corporations.