Workers Waiting on Coronavirus Test Results Go Weeks Without Pay
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, August 4th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal.
How are COVID-19 testing bottlenecks creating unpaid leave for workers?
A surge in COVID-19 cases around the country has increased the demand for testing and created bottlenecks at labs. It also means a long and sometimes costly game of limbo for people who are waiting on results to get back to work.
Waiting without pay for these tests week after week can be financially devastating for families. Nearly half of American families don't have savings equivalent to two and a half weeks of take-home pay.
So are there any rules to protect workers in this situation? Wall Street Journal reporter Deanna Paul will be here to discuss after the break.
Getting tested for COVID-19 has become a lot easier in the past few months. Getting fast results has not. And for a lot of people, that means sitting at home waiting for results and not getting paid. Reporter Deanna Paul joins us to discuss.
Who are the workers affected and what personal stories illustrate the financial impact?
So Deanna, you spoke with several people who are stuck at home waiting on test results. What's going on with them?
One woman that I spoke to from Georgia, she has been home waiting for a COVID-19 test result for 16 days, not getting paid, and she's not symptomatic. She actually only went out to get a test because one of the people she was training at work came in with symptoms. And so she went and got a test just to be safe, but she's never been symptomatic. And yes, she's been home for 16 days waiting for a test result. Another woman that I spoke to out of Richmond, Virginia is an incoming college senior, and she waits tables at a local neighborhood restaurant. She's been homesick for, I believe, 17 days before she received the negative results and wasn't paid during that time. And it's not the company's policy to pay if somebody's home waiting for a result that's negative.
She had to deplete her college savings for the fall by not being paid for that period of time.
Wow. If people don't have savings, they could be in real trouble.
Waiting without pay for these tests week after week can be financially devastating for families. Nearly half of American families don't have savings equivalent to two and a half weeks of take-home pay. The ironic part about all of this is that the CDC guidelines were revised to say that 10 days is the amount of time that somebody has to be at home quarantining. So these people are well past that deadline that the CDC guidance says.
And how about people who are their own boss?
How long are people waiting for test results compared to CDC quarantine guidance?
You know, they aren't answering to a company's set of rules.
One of the women I spoke to is a freelancer. She was saying that even though she was no longer symptomatic, she wanted her test in hand because she had clients and she wanted to make sure that going out and working with these clients as an independent contractor, that she wasn't taking a risk of getting them sick. And the result of that was financially devastating for her had she not had savings put away for a situation like this.
Now, Deanna, we saw a lot of changes to unemployment in the stimulus packages. Do any of those offer aid to workers in this sort of limbo situation?
So each state has its own rules about unemployment. The states that I looked at, like in Georgia, in order for a person to be eligible for pandemic unemployment, they have to first not be eligible for the state unemployment. The federal government also passed a stimulus bill in March, which expired last week at the end of July. That had some benefits for unemployment. There was a weekly stipend of $600, but that ended at the end of July. And so people that were relying on that are out of luck at this point.
How are freelancers and gig workers uniquely affected by test-result wait times?
So they really have their eyes on the next stimulus bill coming out of Washington. So let me ask you this. Does this time at home count as sick time? Are there any federal laws that protect someone in this situation?
Do unemployment benefits or federal stimulus programs cover workers waiting on test results?
Every state has its own rules and different definitions, and each employer has its own policy. Some of the people that I spoke to, their company's included this as a part of sick time, others did not. Because unemployment benefits are state by state, there isn't necessarily a point blank rule that employees who are at home awaiting results can point to and say, I qualify for this.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–0:10
2
How are COVID-19 testing bottlenecks creating unpaid leave for workers?
0:10–1:03
3
Who are the workers affected and what personal stories illustrate the financial impact?
1:03–2:26
4
How long are people waiting for test results compared to CDC quarantine guidance?
2:26–3:30
5
How are freelancers and gig workers uniquely affected by test-result wait times?
3:30–3:40
6
Do unemployment benefits or federal stimulus programs cover workers waiting on test results?
3:40–4:33
7
What workplace and state rules determine whether waiting for a test counts as paid sick leave?
4:33–4:42
Speakers
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