Broiling Temperatures to Hit Outdoor Workers’ Health, Wallets

Climate change is projected to triple or quadruple by 2050 the number of days outdoor workers must endure extremely high temperatures, according to a report released Tuesday.

Black and Latino workers will be most affected because they tend to do the most outdoor work, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. In California, for example, more than 90% of farmworkers are Latino.

If no action is taken to curb climate change, those workers will face 17 more days per year with a heat index above 100 degrees, the report found.

The impacts could be even worse than the study outlined, said Rachel Licker, senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report didn’t include some outdoor occupations, such as postal carriers, and counting the number of undocumented workers in the U.S. is difficult, she said.

“It’s a basic human rights issue, and it’s remarkable that there are people that ask for breaks and shade and don’t get it,” Licker said.

Pay Impacts

More hot days also would put a dent in workers’ pay, particularly if they have no paid sick days and could get fired if they don’t show up for work.

On average, the nation’s 7.6 million construction and extraction workers could lose about $1,900 a year, and a quarter of them could lose $3,000 or more due to lost work.

Between 4.1 to 7.1 million workers are projected to see a 10% earnings cut, the report concluded.

The worst impacts are expected in states with high levels of heat and robust economies, including California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and Louisiana.

Few Heat Stress Rules

Only a few states—including Washington, California, and Minnesota—officially address heat exposure for workers.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has no specific rules covering heat stress, but a rulemaking on heat illness prevention is in the pre-rule stage, agency spokeswoman Denisha Braxton said in July.

A proposed rule may not come until October; until then, OSHA will enforce heat illness measures using the General Duty Clause, a broad standard that requires employers to provide a workplace that’s free from recognized hazards.

A mandatory standard likely would be difficult to administer fairly, because it would require employers to consider factors outside of their control, according to Marc Freedman, vice president of employment policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s one thing to agree that rest, shade, and water are good things,” Freedman said. “It’s another thing to develop a regulation with the force of law that imposes on employers a requirement to protect every employee from heat thresholds where the threshold of risk is going to be different for every employee.”

—With assistance from Fatima Hussein.