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Too Hot to Work? America's Next Big Labor Battle

— By Giulia Carbonaro | August 14, 2023

A Newsweek photo graphic showing, from left, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. Newsweek; Source Photo; Brandon Bell/Getty; Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP Via Getty; Angelo Merendino/Getty Images

American workers are dying, local businesses are reporting a drop in productivity, and the country's economy is losing billions all because of one problem: the heat.

July was the hottest month on record on our planet, according to scientists. This entire summer, so far, has been marked by scorching temperatures for much of the U.S. South, with the thermometer reaching triple digits in several places in Texas between June and July.

In that same period, at least two people died in the state while working under the stifling heat enveloping Texas, a 35-year-old utility lineman, and a 66-year-old USPS carrier. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 36 work-related deaths due to environmental heat exposure in 2021, the latest data available. This was a drop from 56 deaths in 2020, and the lowest number since 2017.

"Workers who are exposed to extreme heat or work in hot environments may be at risk of heat stress," Kathleen Conley, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told Newsweek. "Heat stress can result in heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, or heat rashes. Heat can also increase the risk of injuries in workers as it may result in sweaty palms, fogged-up safety glasses, and dizziness. Burns may also occur as a result of accidental contact with hot surfaces or steam."

While there is a minimum working temperature in the U.S., there's no maximum working temperature set by law at a federal level. The CDC makes recommendations for employers to avoid heat stress in the workplace, but these are not legally binding requirements.

The Biden administration has tasked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with updating its worker safety policies in light of the extreme heat. But the federal standards could take years to develop—leaving the issue in the hands of individual states.

Things aren't moving nearly as fast as the emergency would require—and it's the politics around the way we look at work, the labor market, and the rights of workers in the U.S. that is slowing things down.

A Deep Political Divide

"There's remarkably little in terms of regulation, and of course, given our divided political views in this country—on the right, Republicans in general, are trying to resist more regulation that's premised on continuing global warming," Gregory DeFreitas, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy at Hofstra University, New York, told Newsweek.

There's a bill, initially introduced in 2019 and now revived by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat, that would move in the direction of setting a federal standard for temperature levels, and other heat-related requirements.

The Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act would create a universal heat standard requirement through OSHA for workers threatened by hot working conditions.

"No worker should have to endure life-threatening heat to provide for their family. This would be an important step to protect Ohio workers on the job," said Brown in a statement available on his website. "We know too many workers still work in dangerous conditions, putting their health and safety on the line every day to provide for their families. There's not much dignity in a job where you fear for your health or your life."

Newsweek has contacted Brown for comment by phone but did not receive a response.

"Given the political divisions, it's hard to say what its chances of passage are, although you'd think that another record-setting year in heat would put more pressure on taking similar action," DeFreitas said.

Members of the Hays County Emergency Service Districts and the Kyle and Buda Fire Departments rest together while combatting a wildfire during an excessive heat warning on August 08, 2023 in Hays County, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

This political division over safety regulations in the workplace, according to DeFreitas, started during Donald Trump's presidency. "The minute Trump got in office, he declared war on regulations," he said. "In 2017, he cut OSHA's job safety rules, employers were not required to make as frequent accident reports, there were to be no surprise inspections of factories and workplaces," he said.

"As a result what you have is a weakened federal agency, but that fits with the idea of deregulating businesses and giving them more freedom—the so-called voluntary self-regulation, which was common under both the Bush and the Trump administration."

He added: "That's a deep philosophical orientation of the current Republican Party, regardless of what the dangers are, whether it is climate change or anything else, they want to cut as much regulation and regulatory steps as they can." Newsweek contacted OSHA but did not receive a prompt response.

Billions Up in Smoke

As well as harming or losing people, the country is losing money to the heat.

According to a recent study by the Adrienne-Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, housed at the Atlantic Council, the U.S. is already losing approximately $100 billion on average every year from the drop in labor productivity caused by the current level of heat.

That's "approximately the annual budget for the Department of Homeland Security ($51.7 billion) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development ($44.1 billion) combined (U.S. Government Publishing Office 2019)," researchers write.

The study estimates that, if no significant effort is made to reduce emissions or adapt to extreme heat, labor productivity losses could double to nearly $200 billion by 2030 and reach $500 billion by 2050.

For labor experts, there's no doubt that the extreme heat, which is becoming more frequent due to climate change and our collective failure to bring down carbon emissions on a global level, calls for drastic changes in the way Americans work.

"It's a huge but under-appreciated issue that we're dealing with, not just with outdoor workers, but also oil and gas field workers, people working in warehouses, construction workers," Kurt Shickman, director of Extreme Heat Initiatives at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, told Newsweek. "It's a huge swath of our economy that's already increasingly affected by the heat today."

When it's really hot outside, people work more slowly and they are more prone to make mistakes and have accidents, said Shickman. "You may have situations where the weather is so dangerous that you just physically can't have people outside, so you lose work hours," he added.

"We're going to need all kinds of dramatic changes in terms of factory design, warehouse design, and workplace design," said DeFreitas. "The bill is going to be very, very high unless we do something dramatic soon."

Shickman thinks that change is going to depend on regulation. "I don't think we can count on this being self-policed by businesses. It hasn't been so far."

A State-Level Battle

In the immediate future, protecting workers from heat stress—when it's so hot that the body can't keep its ideal internal temperature and can suffer heat stroke and exhaustion—is then up to state lawmakers and the businesses themselves.

California, for example, has set a maximum temperature at which outdoor workers can safely do their job, as well as introducing other regulations aimed at protecting employees, like more frequent periods in the shade and water breaks. More action has been taken in this direction in a handful of states including Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, and New York.

But while states like California have succeeded in introducing effective safety regulations, in other states similar attempts have been rebuffed by the opposition of industry groups and lobbyists.

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott recently approved a law rescinding city and county ordinances requiring mandatory water breaks for construction workers—a move that generated much controversy and backlash from Texas Democrats. Supporters of the bill, on the other hand, said the law will help rein in local and county officials that have exceeded their authority and will give small businesses the consistency they need to invest and grow.

Heat waves cause distortion on the horizon as a pedestrian walks along South Las Vegas Blvd in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 30, 2023, as temperatures reach more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP Via Getty Images

In Nevada, lawmakers for months have put off giving final approval to heat safety regulations adopted by OSHA, as the state's Department of Business and Industry discusses the concerns of industry groups over the new policies, as reported by The Washington Post.

"With our workers outside during extreme heat, requiring basic water and rest breaks is just common sense—and it will save lives," Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, told Newsweek. "As we continue to experience record heat waves, we need to hold employers accountable and protect workers across the country."

The Cost of Change

Investing in making the workplace safer for employees might cost companies more than they're willing to spend, even as they are losing workers' productivity and hours.

"A lot of the generalized skilled work, what we would call lower skilled work, is in warehouses," Lindsey Cameron, an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, told Newsweek. "Warehouses are big, massive football fields. It costs a lot of money and a lot of infrastructure to try to cool down. And sometimes it's just impossible because you have all these trucks going in and out and people going in and out."

Some businesses have already moved to protect their workers from heat, knowing that the cost of ignoring the issue could eventually be higher than trying to fix it.

A construction worker moves materials as people sit and drink water along the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2023, as temperatures are expected to reach record highs. Brenden Smialowski/AFP Via Getty Images

Jose Garza, the national environmental health and safety leader at California-headquartered general contractor DPR Construction, told Newsweek that the company—which has over 10,000 employees—has implemented heat safety procedures that go beyond the state-mandated regulation, including introducing cooling stations, handing out electrolyte drinks, and giving more breaks to workers.

"We see it as the cost of taking care of people and the right thing to do," he said. "You can either plan for it or react to it, because if you're not planning for it, those breaks are going to happen when the worker is no longer able to work, when they're sick, when they're well beyond the point where their bodies are unable to cool themselves down."

Garza said that employers who care about their workers should go "above and beyond" available regulation to protect them from heat.

'A Long Time' Coming

Experts agree that change won't come from the businesses—and will likely not come soon unless there's committed political action.

"It's really going to take both state and federal movement on this," DeFreitas said. "And I'm hoping that certainly in states like New York, where there does seem to be more attention to workplace safety, that they can move in the direction of the federal bill that's now stuck in progress."

"I don't think the United States has such a great backbone when it comes to climate issues," said Cameron. "We pulled out of the Paris Agreement [under former President Trump in 2017, but rejoined in 2021 under President Joe Biden]. I think there's going to be a lot more attention given to climate change, but it may take a long time to be able to see those changes."

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