New Report Illustrates How Women are Disproportionately Impacted by Lack of Paid Leave During the Coronavirus Crisis

Compiled by Joy Burkhard, MBA

A new issue brief by the Kaiser Family Foundation examines how uneven paid family and sick leave policies across the U.S. may impact workers affected by COVID-19.

The CDC has encouraged employers to allow employees to work from home, but many jobs are not amenable to telecommuting. Furthermore, the limits on paid leave benefits are important to parents who work outside the home, as some schools across the country have closed and many others are considering closing in response to COVID-19.

Women comprise nearly half of the nation’s workforce and are usually the ones to care for children when they are sick and cannot attend school or daycare. Four in ten (40%) mothers working outside the home say they must take time off work and stay home when their children are sick, and more than half report they are not paid during that time.

The brief also examines provisions in the COVID-19 economic relief package in Congress and how it addresses some of the gaps in existing leave policies for workers and their families affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak and its widespread economic impacts.

There is no federal requirement for employers to provide paid family and medical leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires eligible employers to provide 12 weeks of unpaid family leave to care for seriously ill family members, and job protection when employees return to work. Employees can use family leave to care for children or other relatives, including aging parents, who are at heightened risk for coronavirus. Women are the primary caregivers for the nation’s older population, comprising roughly two-thirds of informal caregivers, and many work outside the home.

Economic disparities are playing out in the crisis (New York Times):

Even as Americans have been warned to avoid groups or to shelter in place, many low-wage workers are being asked to keep working and commuting to jobs that potentially put them at risk of exposure.

Chains like T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Kohl’s and Starbucks remain staffed and open. Gap stores, like the one above in Brooklyn, N.Y., are closed on Thursday.

“I’m scared to go to work, but if I don’t go I won’t get paid, and I have a one-year-old at home,” wrote one employee on an internal messaging board. “Please please please close all stores.”

And while large firms like Amazon and Wells Fargo are going to great lengths to protect some workers, janitors are often not among them.

Read more about the issue brief.