Rutgers researcher finds widespread reports of service sector employees feeling overheated and regularly experiencing indoor conditions exceeding 80 degrees
Indoor heat exposure is a rising problem for service sector workers, according to a report authored by Hana Shepherd, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and a senior researcher with the Workplace Justice Lab@RU.
The report, released by the Shift Project - a joint initiative of Harvard Kennedy School's Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy and the University of California, San Francisco - was co-authored by Kristen Harknett, a professor of sociology at the University of California, San Francisco; and Henri Jackson, a pre-doctoral fellow at the Shift Project.
These numbers suggest that millions of service sector workers across the country are regularly exposed to potentially unsafe levels of heat indoors each summer and they have very limited ability to mitigate their heat exposure.
Hana Shepherd
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Based on data from 3,514 service sector employees throughout the United States, researchers found widespread reports of indoor workers feeling overheated and regularly experiencing temperatures exceeding 80 degrees Fahrenheit, often with little recourse.
"We expected to find some indoor heat exposure among retail workers, but not nearly the levels we did find," Shepherd said. "These numbers suggest that millions of service sector workers across the country are regularly exposed to potentially unsafe levels of heat indoors each summer and they have very limited ability to mitigate their heat exposure. This creates various health risks for them."
Among workers employed in retail or food service who work indoors, 65% reported feeling uncomfortably hot or overheated at work and 36% reported experiencing uncomfortable heat at work often or always.
Federal standards being proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would use a threshold of 80 degrees to define workplace heat exposure, which nearly half of workers surveyed report already experiencing. New Jersey does not have a state heat standard; a bill establishing one has been proposed in the state Assembly.
Additionally, the researchers found that among retail and food-service workers who work indoors:
- 37% had a heat-related headache
- 34% experienced heat-related fatigue
- 24% had heat-related nausea in the past year
The greatest exposure to heat among indoor retail workers was reported by warehouse workers (63%), fast-food workers (58%) and restaurant workers (52%).
However, researchers noted nearly 40% of indoor workers in retail stores - a group historically omitted from heat standards and regulations - regularly experience at least 80-degree temperatures at work.
"We need to broaden our conception of who is affected by workplace heat exposure. It's not just those working outdoors or in kitchens," Harknett said.
Citing what they described as a patchwork of state and federal workplace protections and the inconsistent enforcement of existing indoor heat policies, authors of the report said their findings illustrate a "clear need for updated federal and state regulations and enforcement regarding standards and procedures for evaluating and mitigating exposure to heat in indoor work."
Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.
