by Keisha Ray, Ph.D.
On Monday my hometown of San Antonio, Texas declared a local public emergency after a woman who was quarantined for suspected exposure to Covid-19 was released from custody. It was only after the woman’s release that officials discovered her positive test and she returned to quarantine. For the past two weeks San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base has been the home of 122 people, including this woman who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship where they spent 2 weeks in quarantine after confirmed cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus on the ship. After the evacuee was released she visited various locations in San Antonio including the very popular mall North Star Mall. In response, the owners closed the mall for 24 hours to deep clean the facility. When I heard this news I immediately thought of the people who employ the many stores and restaurants in this large mall. Would they still be paid for the day? If not, how will a day of missed pay affect their budgets?
In regards to Covid-19 there is much for ethicists to discuss including governments’ response to the virus, unclear information on how the virus is spread and how people can reduce chances of exposure to the virus, the CDC, the WHO, and local health facilities’ ability to respond to the virus should it become more widespread, and addressing the public’s fears and worries. The closing of North Star mall, however, made me think of the toll Covid-19 is taking on people’s pockets and paid sick leave.
America already has a precarious relationship with paid time off for employees with over 32 million American workers working jobs that do not offer paid sick leave (or paid leave for any reason). Although many jobs offer paid sick leave, there are no federal laws requiring employers to provide paid sick leave (or paid vacation leave) to their employees. There are, however, some local and state laws that require employers to provide paid sick leave. For example, the cities of Tacoma and Seattle have paid sick leave laws but there are not state-wide laws that apply to the whole state of Washington. States like Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 13 states that have paid sick leave laws (There are also some laws such as the Family Medical Leave Act that does require employers to provide unpaid sick leave to its employees without penalty under some circumstances). Noticeably, Texas, is not on this list. And North Star Mall has exactly the kind of jobs that typically do not offer paid time off. Low paying jobs are the type of jobs less likely to offer paid time off. This includes people who work some of the jobs that are vital to the smooth functioning of our society, including people who work in child care, retail, the food industry, and some low paying (and sometimes not low paying) contract jobs. When businesses close as a result of Covid-19 these people go without pay.
What’s even more troubling is that people who work at jobs that do not offer paid leave may decide to continue to work even if they have suspected exposure to the virus or show symptoms of having the virus. Every day people choose between not going to the doctor, not staying home while sick and instead go to work because they need the money or taking unpaid leave from work to see a doctor or stay home and get well. This means the people that prepare our foods and care for our children are not incentivized to stay home and get well if they suspect they might have COVID-19. Beyond how unpaid leave harms society as a whole, the individuals who might be sick are forced to ignore their health for the sake of their paycheck.
And this is not even to mention the likelihood that people who work low paying jobs can even afford to see a doctor if they suspect exposure to COVID-19. Recently the New York Times published an article telling the story of a man and his daughter who were quarantined in San Diego after suspected exposure to COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. Upon release he received several medical bills for their forced quarantine that he cannot afford because of financial constraints, but he also does not have health insurance. Although some agencies have reached out to him after this story was published to say that his bill would be paid, other agencies have not responded and as of now the bills are his responsibility. This is an example of another burden that COVID-19 places on the most financially vulnerable people in our society.
COVID-19 presents us with another facet of our current class and race inequities problem. How we as a country treat people who must take off of work for deep cleanings of their facilities or for suspected personal exposure will either further cement or somewhat chip away at our class issue. Most people who work low-paying jobs without paid leave are also people of color making this issue also a matter of race.
The outbreak of this coronavirus forces us to once again consider that Americans cannot afford to get sick. We cannot even afford to get tested to see if we are sick and contagious to other people. Our current health care system endangers the lives of all Americans and this outbreak is further showing that. There is no way for anyone to live a life of wellbeing and live the American dream if the most vulnerable people among us must work when they are sick or when closing their jobs for just 24 hours threatens to derail their finances. If the one day closure of North Star Mall is any indication of what is to come for America during this coronavirus outbreak, not having universal health care and making health care so expensive that it is out of reach for millions of Americans will certainly haunt us for years to come.