Essential Labor and Fairness in the Economy
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe COVID-19 crisis spotlights the critical nature of so much underappreciated labor and raises profound societal questions.
These consequential issues inspired me to create and teach a summer course where Ball State University students investigate events affecting all of our lives, using historical accounts of past pandemics, philosophical texts, and a range of studies on inequality in health care, income, and other areas.
The course includes the concept of essential labor, a legal category that places limits on the rights of laborers to refuse to work. The reason is that the suspension of some services would cause significant social harms. Emergency services are the obvious candidate.
In recent months, we have expanded the definition of “essential labor.” People still need to purchase food. So grocery store employees are now essential. Most positions in this field are low-paid, mainly because the workers are perceived as replaceable. Anyone, we might think, can be a grocery cashier, and it is not treated as what some call a career job.
But the pandemic highlights that real people perform these jobs and they do so as careers in the sense that these jobs are the source of lifelong income.
Many businesses closed offices, but professionals continue their work from home. Most of these professionals are much better compensated than grocery store clerks, even though society now considers their work as less essential.
The ordinary rationales for income inequality break down a little bit, and the circumstances raise questions that all professionals should ask themselves. Why do I earn three times what the clerk earns? Why do I have better health care and a safer workplace?
The pandemic also should prompt us to consider how our environments cause disparities in health and well-being. One action that businesses can take is be attentive to the communities that they serve and adapt business practices to better accommodate the health of those communities.
The best outcomes would reflect increased solidarity between business owners or managers and their employees. Some businesses have flourished during the shutdowns, but they have done so precisely because their workers put their health, and the health of their families, at risk. Employees should not be treated as dispensable, and business owners should not think of themselves as the only risk-takers. Our business leaders should think of themselves as leaders of their employees rather than leaders of just the business.
Protecting employees is compatible with profit-seeking. In a few cases, businesses have failed as a result of outbreaks among workers. This demonstrates something that is less obvious than it sounds: the health and well-being of the labor force is the most essential part of any business.
This article is sponsored content paid for by Ball State University.
Ball State philosophy professor Kevin Harrelson takes a multidisciplinary approach to philosophy. His pedagogy emphasizes storytelling, also a focus of his scholarly research, and individualized student research. His course is one example of how Ball State has responded to the urgent need for additional study and coursework on the impact of COVID-19. Learn more about Ball State’s innovative faculty.
Ball State University philosophy: https://www.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/philosophy-religious-studies
Kevin Harrelson: https://www.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/philosophy-religious-studies/contact-us/directory/harrelsonkevin
Ball State’s innovative faculty: bsu.edu/faculty: https://www.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/meetourfaculty