Tag: hourly workers

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The impact of COVID-19 on hourly and low-wage workers

shift scheduling for hourly restaurant workers, shift swap

One thing COVID-19 has done in the United States is put a spotlight on how a pandemic impacts lower wage hourly workers versus salaried, higher-earning employees. 

With a limited number of coronavirus tests currently available, many wealthy Americans, celebrities and politicians have been able to get tested for COVID-19 and get results quickly while cutting less affluent people in line. While insurers have waived the copay to get tested for the virus, patients still have to pay for treatment, which could result in thousands of dollars of medical bills. As Time noted, one uninsured patient owed $34,927.43 for her treatment. 

“While most people infected with COVID-19 will not need to be hospitalized and can recover at home, according to the World Health Organization, those who do need to go to the ICU can likely expect big bills, regardless of what insurance they have,” the article stated. “As the U.S. government works on another stimulus package, future relief is likely to help ease some economic problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but gaps remain.”

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, workers who need paid sick days the most have the least, wrote Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, in an EPI article. Only 30 percent of the lowest-paid workers — many of whom are hourly workers in the service industry — have the ability to earn paid sick days, and these are the workers who typically have contact with the public.

These workers also typically are the ones who can’t work from home. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, among 25 percent of full-time workers who earn the least, only 9.2 percent have the option to work from home compared to the 61.5 percent of employees who earn the most. 

Also read: The role of businesses in addressing public health outbreaks 

Some companies have been positive in their response to COVID-19.  Microsoft decided to continue to pay all its hourly service providers their regular pay while the company has reduced service needs. Walmart also announced that workers would receive up to two weeks pay should they be quarantined or test positive for the virus. 

According to a Willis Towers Watson survey of 805 companies polled the week of March 16, 72 percent of employers will continue to pay hourly workers who test positive for coronavirus. Similarly, 54 percent will also pay hourly employees who have cold or flu-like symptoms and choose to stay home. Less promising, only 36 percent will continue paying hourly workers when they stay home because they don’t have child care.

Meanwhile, other companies have decided that mass layoffs are necessary so its out-of-work employees can collect unemployment benefits and return to their old job “when this extraordinary episode ends.”

Unemployment benefits may be helpful. But while a common occurrence in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is more people getting laid off, more than 50 percent of employees get health coverage through work. Former employees have to worry about regular finances like rent and food while also figuring out what to do once they’ve lost their employer-provided health insurance. 

Laid-off employees can sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage, but they need to avoid common, easy mistakes, according to the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, which provides laid-off employees guidance to find a new insurance plan. For example, short-term insurance coverage can be misleading for consumers, the report noted. This type of health plan may not cover costly services like hospital visits and often doesn’t protect people with pre-existing conditions.

In light of the unique issues facing low-wage and hourly workers, there are certain best practices companies can consider. According to Gallup, these best practices include:

  • Approving additional budget for supplies or additional paid time off.
  • Granting paid time off for symptomatic employees, employees who must care for family members who are diagnosed with COVID-19, and/or employees with diagnosed cases of COVID-19.
  • Permitting unlimited unpaid time off without penalty.
  • Paying for time spent under quarantine.
  • Communicating employer-sponsored insurance and other relevant benefits.
  • Making revisions to employee compensation and benefits policies.

COVID-19 is rapidly changing how businesses operate. We recognize that organizations need an extra helping hand right now. So we’re offering our platform for free to new sign-ups over the coming months. Sign up today and our Workforce Success team will gladly provide a personal, online walkthrough of our platform to help you get started.

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How do I compensate hourly workers during the coronavirus pandemic?

pay compensation

No doubt there are lots of questions regarding compensation for hourly employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.pay compensation

Many employers want to do right by their hourly workers and offer them fair compensation while they temporarily shutter their workplace or curtail operations. Meanwhile, there are uncertainties regarding who gets paid and who doesn’t.

One valuable resource that offers clarity for employers regarding hourly employees is on the Department of Labor website. The comprehensive “U.S. Department of Labor Issues Workplace Guidelines for Coronavirus Outbreak, Including Specific Guidance on FMLA, FLSA and FECA” provides detailed information valuable for remaining in compliance as well as offering insight to compensating employees.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act direction is this guidance:

Pay to Non-Exempt Employees During Business Closures. Under the FLSA, employers are obligated to pay non-exempt employees only for the hours worked, not hours the employee otherwise would have worked if the employer’s business had not closed. If telecommuting or working from home is provided as a reasonable accommodation, the employer must pay non-exempt workers the minimum wage, and at least time and one half the regular rate of pay for overtime hours, for hours telecommuting or working from home. For more information on this topic, please see our previous post on employers’ considerations in response to coronavirus (available here).

Kate Bischoff, a Minneapolis-based employment attorney and HR consultant, suggested that employers first must decide what positions are crucial to maintaining operations. 

“Then, there’s really no good way to go about it,” Bischoff said. “Fairness would dictate that you furlough/lay off the part-timers first, then the least senior, but there’s no good way.”

Also read: Solving the concern over clean time clocks with a mobile solution

Other considerations include what to do about volunteers, she added, and those who may be in the high-risk groups (over 60 or with pre-existing conditions).

“But make sure there isn’t a disparate impact on any protected group more than others, like married people, minorities and women. We’re in uncharted waters,” Bischoff said.

According to a spokeswoman for Portland, Oregon-based Think HR, employers and managers may offer paid time off to those employees who are unable to work due to a decrease in business, and they may select whom to offer this PTO to based on seniority, full-time status, employee classification, or job type.

“There are no hard and fast rules for deciding what groups to include or where to draw the line on tenure,” she said. “Employers, however, should take care not to violate (or appear to violate) anti-discrimination law, and they may want to consider how their decision will affect employee morale presently and in the future. Employers should also keep in mind that pay requirements may change as new laws are passed in response to the pandemic.”

Insurance and risk-management consultancy Gallagher just released its guidance on Coronavirus Pandemic Preparedness that includes five steps to minimize business disruption and safeguard employees.

“As pandemics spread it is important now, more than ever, to have an actionable business plan in place to help guide your employees and your business through the uncertainty of pandemics,” the report states.  

Cleanliness is a given.

If employees must clock in at the workplace,keep the keyboard or time clock as clean as possible. 

Employers working with Chicago-based employment law attorney William R. Pokorny are taking a variety of different approaches.

“Those that have some amount of paid time off or paid sick leave, either employer-based or as required by state and local paid sick leave laws, are for now having people use their available leave,” Pokorny said. “Some are extending additional leave — for example, 14 days — specific to the coronavirus situation. The leave is generally paid out based on the employee’s regularly scheduled work hours, so someone who usually works 20 hours in a week would get 20 hours of sick leave for a week. It varies widely by employer.”

Bischoff added that even employers trying to do the right thing for their hourly workers may not be doing enough.

“Trying to do the right thing is hard at this point,” she said. “Employers need to do what they can for their people.”

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On-shift scheduling doesn’t have to be a headache for managers or employees

shift scheduling for hourly restaurant workers, shift swap

Most hourly employees have dealt with shift scheduling problems at one time or another.

I’ve witnessed it first-hand with my kids. After a 10-hour Saturday night shift at a restaurant slinging beer and burgers until 2 a.m., I would hear one of them quietly creep into the house. OK, they were actually pretty noisy coming in and banging around in the kitchen. As I dozed back off I just prayed that they wouldn’t fall asleep after popping a frozen pizza in the oven.Rick Bell Workforce

The good thing was they got home safe and sound. And the kitchen was not charred to an ember when I woke up the next morning. After that kind of a late-night shift I expected them to sleep in late.

Nope. No sleep for the weary in the restaurant biz.

Somebody had to pull themselves out of bed and work brunch at 10 a.m., and guess who was on call? Yep, my sleep-deprived, bleary-eyed child. Not just once. Or twice. This insidious sleep deprivation technique was a regular occurrence.

I mean, who is doing this on-shift scheduling? What sadistic clown is shift scheduling an employee who closed at 2 a.m. the night before to be back on the clock to pour mimosas and serve bacon and two eggs over easy at 10 a.m. that same morning? Oh, right. A restaurant owner. Or the manager, who likely is on the same scheduled shift because, well, restaurant managers are just a different breed.

I know, restaurants and hospitality exist in the fast lane — fast cash, fast life for many employees. Seriously, how many industries lavish itself with weekly industry nights?

The cruel and unusual shift scheduling was a regular occurrence back in the day when I punched a time clock as a bellman at a resort hotel in San Diego. Work the late shift until the final check-in at midnight then back in at 6 a.m. for the early checkouts.

I’ve even heard the mad scramble to find replacement workers when I’m getting a roll of quarters at the service counter of my grocery store. The manager, who is a really kind, caring woman, is frantically on the phone to staff her Saturday evening shift because so-and-so just called off sick and two others are already on vacation. (Why am I getting quarters on a Saturday evening? Don’t ask.)

Unfortunately, it seems that pretty much every hourly employee short of a union pipefitter is subject to such short-sighted shift scheduling. Want to burn out your hourly employees and watch them leave for greener pastures? Give them a day’s notice, schedule them that evening and then tell them they need to be back in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed early the next morning.

We are finally seeing a groundswell of support from many states and municipalities for predictable shift, or fair workweek legislation but any sort of federal fair workweek law is unlikely for years to come.

Come on, people! This is not complicated! Your employees have lives. You have a life. Well, unless you’re a restaurant manager. Make the shift scheduling process as painless and humane as possible. For starters:

No on-call shift scheduling. Ever. Telling employees to call in before a shift to see if they are needed and then sending them home if the shift turns out to be slow is incredibly hard-hearted. Don’t be hard-hearted.

Provide your employees with work schedules well before they are supposed to show up. Like two weeks before. Minimum 10 days. That gives them time to switch shifts should an emergency or a really good party pop up.

And you know what? Go digital. Paper-based timekeeping? Really? I know, it’s hard to break a routine that’s been in place since, oh, the Bicentennial. But seriously, check your timekeeping software options.

One thing that I constantly harp on is engagement and communication. Engage your employees through sensible, predictable shift scheduling. Your workers are happier because they’ll have a predictable life. As predictable as life can be, I guess.

And it’s not a stretch to say that a happier workforce means a more engaged workforce, which cuts down on burnout and puts the clamps on the bane of all hourly employers – turnover.

It may not prevent your kid from torching the kitchen with that forgotten frozen pizza in the oven, but they won’t be nearly as bleary-eyed the next morning, either.

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Hourly Worker Burnout Is a Major Problem. Stop Overlooking It.

The CareerCast stress report analyzes 11 factors that represent the most common stressors including deadlines, public scrutiny and physical demands.

When you hear the word “burnout” in the context of the workforce, a specific image comes to mind. You might picture a lawyer or consultant logging 80 hours a week and managing high-intensity clients, pushed over the edge by a messy court case or a business trip gone wrong.

You’re probably less likely to picture the service worker giving you your burger and fries or health care provider caring for your aging parents at home, overcome by prolonged periods of mild stress. However, shift workers are equally, or perhaps even more, prone to burnout than corporate professionals.

As technology and automation advance to simplify the lives of skilled laborers, the needs of low-wage hourly workers are forgotten. Corporations feel pressured to increase productivity, which creates a chronically stressful environment for workers who are on the frontlines dealing with customers every day.

The Wave of Burnout in Hourly Workforces

Burned out employees are now commonplace in industries requiring an hourly workforce. White-collar workers may take certain job elements for granted, such as predictable hours and flexibility over where they work for the day. But these perks rarely exist for hourly shift workers. Shift managers receive pressure from higher-ups to build schedules that maximize profits and minimize the number of employees needed on a shift, meaning schedules promote high stress and often differ from week to week.

Erratic scheduling is made worse by chronic understaffing, thanks to low unemployment – ultimately leading to increased demands on the existing workforce. For the first time ever in the U.S., the number of open jobs has been higher than the number of people looking for work for 17 straight months. Low-skilled workers such as nurses and restaurant workers are in the highest demand as more people go to college and more baby boomers reach retirement.

This has led hourly workers to form different relationships with their work. For once, low-skilled workers have leverage in the job market and may be inclined to find new workplaces if their own current conditions are not optimal. In July, 3.6 million people quit their jobs – the highest number ever in a single month.

Employers should be feeling more heat than ever to improve work conditions and worker satisfaction. Doing so needs to start with empowering your workforce through better management practices that give employees control and recognition. Using a digital workplace is a powerful, cost-effective way to ensure your workers don’t burn out.

Leveraging Digital Workplace Tools to Prevent Burnout

Promoting worker engagement can be the difference between burned out workers on the verge of quitting and satisfied employees. Digital workplace tools enable managers to spend more time engaging with customers and employees and give back some of the power frontline workers lack. By optimizing these areas with new technology, you can set up your workforce and customers for lasting success.

  • Keep communication fluid. Just as it’s important for workers to receive clear communication from higher-ups, it is crucial for managers to accept feedback from those working the frontline. An internal communications platform simplifies the process for getting in touch with employees and opens up opportunities for your workforce to connect, share and receive important information. These tools can also boost retention by ensuring that employees receive the recognition they need to stay satisfied through measures like badges, gamified leaderboards and mobile communication.
  • Allow agency in scheduling. Burnout among hourly workers is often attributed to stress over scheduling, particularly in industries where employees may not know their hours for the week until the day before. This is exacerbated by paper schedules that hinder last-minute changes. A digital workplace allows employees to request time off and swap shifts with coworkers directly, giving them a healthier work-life balance and a more predictable schedule.
  • Create opportunities for upskilling. Providing ongoing training to build new skills is an excellent way to ensure employees feel satisfied at work. Unfortunately, it’s often neglected because it can be time-consuming to build and deliver, and therefore costly. Digital tools enable employers to deploy low-cost, personalized training across your company to boost engagement and productivity.

Though retention and workplace management seem trickier than ever, employers are not powerless against the labor shortage, nor the wave of burnout. Instead, use this as an opportunity to stand out as an excellent employer by taking your management processes to the next level. Doing so positions you as the upstanding employer that workers will turn to when another has driven them to burn out.