COVID-19 and the Workplace in Utah

COVID-19 and the workplace in Utah

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and workplaces around the world and across the US began to make changes almost immediately afterward. While many workers were sent home and able to telecommute, others were not. The term ‘essential workers’ was coined to describe frontline workers in healthcare, food service, critical retail and public transportation.1 Non-essential workers, however, were often furloughed, laid off, or moved to remote work. 

New policies were created to protect essential workers, and then later to protect the rest of the workforce as lockdowns lifted. In 2021, OSHA issued guidelines for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 within in-person workplaces.2 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also issued guidelines about protecting those who were immunocompromised or required other accommodations beyond what OSHA set forth.3

COVID-19 in the workplace had a disproportionate effect on specific workers. Essential workers were often lower-paid and socioeconomically disadvantaged workers.4 Likewise, workers who could not perform their jobs remotely, or who lacked infrastructure to do so like laptops and adequate internet, often become unemployed. Because of this, COVID-19 amplified existing racial and ethnic disparities in the US workforce.

This topic in Utah

Utah and its workers have been affected by COVID-19 from early 2020 onwards. On March 6th, five days before the WHO officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, state Governor Gary H. Herbert issued an Executive Order declaring a state of emergency. Schools closed buildings and transitioned to online learning through May, bars and restaurants had limited operations, telehealth operations were expanded, businesses providing personal services were closed temporarily, and social distancing was mandated.5 While very necessary to keep people safe, all of these measures also impacted workers. Those who worked in schools had to learn new technologies and management skills on the job; those who worked in food services and personal services might either be at greater risk of the virus or lose their jobs altogether; parents might have to take leave to ensure their kids had access to online schooling from home. Later, Utah also put out a COVID-19 Business Manual offering guidance to businesses in the state.6

COVID-19 had major impacts on specific sectors in Utah. Healthcare and social assistance received more funding and developed more rapidly.7 The hospitality and tourism industry, one of Utah’s most important sectors, suffered tremendously as travel and face-to-face meetings were both limited.8 Utah ensured that employees could claim workers’ compensation if they contracted COVID-19 at their workplace.9 Recovery plans also strove to repair workplaces and provide gainful, sustainable employment again.10

Frontline workers in Utah, who are most often racially and ethnically diverse populations, were most at risk and suffered the highest incidence rates of infection, hospitalization, and mortality, often while also facing job insecurity, fatigue, and lack of health insurance.11 Women were also impacted extensively, often because they needed to perform additional childcare or family care duties on top of new work responsibilities, or by losing employment altogether.12

While vaccines, vaccine mandates, and other measures have lessened the threat of COVID-19 in Utah, the virus’s impacts on the state and its workplaces still linger.