LONDON -- A barber in Beijing is supporting his wife and child by charging food and other expenses to a credit card while he waits for his employer's shop to reopen. A waiter at a barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, Mo., washes his hands more often and hopes for the best. A parcel delivery driver in Britain worries about getting sick from the people who sign for their packages.
While white-collar workers trying to avoid contagion can work from home or call in sick if they experience symptoms of the virus, that's not an option for the millions of waiters, delivery workers, cashiers, ride-hailing drivers, museum attendants and countless others who routinely have contact with the public.
Their dilemma is often compounded by spotty sick-leave policies or inadequate health insurance coverage, leaving them vulnerable to the fast-spreading coronavirus.
"The recommendations on what people should be doing to protect themselves really gives a sharp indication of the divide between white-collar and blue-collar workers," said Shannon Liss-Reardon, a workers-rights attorney in Boston. "Our social safety net is just not equipped at this moment to deal with a crisis like this, and it will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable low-wage workers."
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
The vast majority of people recover. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In mainland China, where the outbreak emerged in December, almost three-fourths of more than 80,000 patients have recovered.
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While tech companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft have implemented work-from-home policies, only 29% of U.S. workers have that option, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means retail workers like Mendy Hughes must fend for themselves. The Walmart cashier in Malvern assists hundreds of people a day and her big worry is what will happen to her income if she catches the virus or comes in contact with someone who's had it and must self-quarantine for 14 days.
"If I can't go to work, I could try to take a leave but it will be unpaid," said Hughes, who earns $11.60 an hour. "I don't know what I would be doing about taking care of my family."
Hughes, a diabetic and mother of four, gets 48 hours of sick leave a year but she fears it wouldn't be nearly enough time to recover.
On Tuesday, Walmart announced a new policy offering its hourly employees extended emergency leave after a worker in one of its Kentucky stores tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Bentonville retailer said Tuesday that hourly employees working in a store, club, office or distribution center will receive up to two weeks' pay if they or their region are required to go into quarantine.
Company executives said in a memo to employees that those with a confirmed case of the virus will also get two weeks of paid leave. If they need more time to recover, they may get up to 26 weeks off with pay.
In addition, Walmart is waiving its attendance policy through April to let workers stay home if they are unable to work or feel uncomfortable at work because of the virus. To get paid for this time, though, employees will have to use their accrued paid time off.
The new policy applies to both full- and part-time hourly workers, regardless of their time with the company. Walmart has about 1.5 million U.S. employees.
The Kentucky employee's condition is improving, the company said, and the store where she works remains open.
In the United States, about 27% of private-sector workers don't have access to paid sick leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some countries, such as Britain, are looking into helping out nonpermanent workers. There is no federal sick-leave policy in the U.S., but 12 of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., require employers to offer paid sick leave.
Some House and Senate Democrats have been pushing legislation that would require employers to allow workers to accrue seven days of paid sick leave and to provide an additional 14 days in the event of any public-health emergency, including the current coronavirus crisis.
In Britain, parcel delivery driver Ed Cross worries about catching the virus from the machine he hands people who sign for their packages.
"People have coughed on their hand and then got hold of my machine and you sort of make a joke of it trying to point it out," Cross, 53, said. "But, yeah, it's what we face daily."
"We only have to go to the wrong house and we could catch it, as simple as that," said Cross, who on a recent day handed packages to 110 people on his route in Whitby, northern England.
The British government last week made it easier to collect statutory sick pay and is working on changes to help millions of nonpermanent workers like Cross who aren't eligible for it. In a sign the industry is waking up to the problem, his parcel company, Hermes, announced a $1.3 million fund to help couriers who need to self-isolate.
Uber, meanwhile, said it would compensate drivers and couriers for up to 14 days if they get sick or have to be quarantined.
In France, where people have the right not to work but still receive full pay when they consider their workplaces to be dangerous, some service employees briefly stayed home because of contagion concerns. Workers at the Louvre, the world's most-visited museum, refused to work for two days and were coaxed back only after new anti-virus measures were introduced.
"We are asking for gloves. We are asking for disinfectant gels, and masks for the drivers," said Bastien Berthier of the Paris metro's UNSA union.
Information for this article was contributed by Kelvin Chan and Mae Anderson of The Associated Press and by Serenah McKay of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Business on 03/11/2020