Want to Stop Coronavirus? Start with Helping Low-Income Workers

This outbreak illustrates that the fate of the well-to-do is tied to the welfare of everyone else. Low-wage workers are more likely to be domestic workers, healthcare workers, food service workers, and sanitation workers - all the industries that the rich Americans rely on to help keep them healthy, safe, and fed.

As the spread of Coronavirus within the US sparks deeper, long-term concerns about the American economy’s ability to handle a pandemic, the Trump administration has introduced several economic relief proposals. Most of the ideas so far, however, shamefully ignore the Americans most likely to bear the brunt of the dangerous disease: lowincome workers.

The many problems of chronically underpaying millions of workers existed long before this virus hit our shores, but the fastspreading, lethal nature of this new coronavirus throws them into stark relief. And we need to fix it - now.

Right now, nearly half of all Americans lack the ability to scrape together $400 in case of an emergency, so how will they afford a flu related hospital visit where they might have to take a week off work without pay?

Simply put - they won’t, unless swift government action is taken.

While the Trump administration discusses bailouts for the cruise, airline, hotel, and oil industries as well as payroll tax cuts that would do precious little for low-income workers, there are currently 32 million workers in the US without paid sick leave. These hard working employees risk losing their income (and in some cases, their jobs) if they skip work because they’re sick.

Together, these historical policy choices create a perfect storm of mutually reinforcing risk factors that could both make this epidemic harder to stop and push too many already vulnerable Americans to the front lines of a lethal disease. If our economic response doesn’t include thorough, comprehensive protections for low-income workers, this outbreak will continue to worsen for everyone, and disproportionately harm low-income Americans.

With 25 million workers earning less than $11 an hour (and over 2 million earning just $7.25 an hour), a significant portion of our population already can barely afford to the basics in normal times. Even if you were cruel and cynical and wanted to just ignore the needs of low-income workers, providing these vulnerable groups with the financial security they need to weather a pandemic is still a matter of life and death for the folks who do enjoy the financial security and leave policies they lack.

This outbreak illustrates that the fate of the wellto-do is tied to the welfare of everyone else. Lowwage workers are more likely to be domestic workers, healthcare workers, food service workers, and sanitation workers - all the industries that the rich Americans rely on to help keep them healthy, safe, and fed. If those workers are not provided with the most basic human securities such as affordable health care so they can see a doctor or paid enough to afford to feed their family, the risk of more workers becoming infected and continuing to transmit the coronavirus increases dramatically.

While stock market volatility continues to dominate headlines and elicit promises of tax relief and bailouts from the White House, the inherent risk of ignoring low-income workers continues unabated - and it’s time that our politicians reckon with that.

Instead of meeting this crisis with the same old proposals of tax cuts and bailouts for rich CEOs and owners in times of distress, our leaders should use this moment to fundamentally change how we treat working people in this country. It’s time to secure higher wages and paid sick leave, and to finally stop prioritizing Wall Street profits over American workers.

John Driscoll is the CEO of CareCentrix. He is a member of the Patriotic Millionaires, a coalition of high-net worth Americans concerned about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in the U.S.