Too Hot to Work

When the temperature and humidity rise, so do the risks to the health and livelihoods of outdoor workers. People who work outdoors often have limited opportunities to cool off on hot days and, as a result, have a much higher risk of heat-related illness or death than the general population. And yet not working through the heat often means forgoing a paycheck. As climate change increases the frequency of days that are too hot to safely work outdoors, outdoor workers could find themselves increasingly having to choose between their health and their paychecks.

To ensure these workers can come home safely at the end of their shifts, the United States needs to make swift, deep cuts to heat-trapping emissions, while also implementing workplace protection measures that reduce the risk of heat-related illness.

This series of interactive maps presents an original analysis that quantifies the health and economic impacts of extreme heat on the outdoor workers in a changing climate. The analysis combines data on the frequency of extreme-heat days and the number of outdoor workers in the United States with science-based recommendations for reducing work time on hot days from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

While all sorts of jobs require some degree of outside work, there are seven categories of occupations in which outdoor work is particularly prevalent:

Roughly 80 percent of outdoor workers in the United States are men. Outdoor workers are also more likely than the general population to identify as Black, African American, Hispanic, or Latino. These racial and ethnic groups comprise 45 percent of the outdoor workforce despite representing about 32 percent of the US population. The percentage of people working outdoors tends to be higher in rural counties than in urban counties.

This map shows the percent of each county’s workforce that currently works outdoors. You can move the map and zoom in to your area of interest. Click on any county for more detailed information. To open the legend, click on the circle on the bottom left of the map.

The number of days per year when the heat index—or "feels-like" temperature—exceeds 100°F is expected to double by midcentury with either slow action or no action to reduce heat-trapping emissions. Under such conditions, the CDC recommends curtailing outdoor work to reduce the risk of heat-related illness and death. Without paycheck and workplace protection measures in place, lost work time translates into lost earnings. By midcentury, with no action to reduce emissions, a collective $55.4 billion in outdoor workers’ earnings would be at risk annually.

People identifying as Hispanic or Latino make up 17 percent of the general population in the United States, but nearly 30 percent of the outdoor workforce. Hispanic or Latino people hold more than half of all jobs in the construction and extraction sector and the farming, fishing, and forestry sector—both of which have particularly high rates of heat-related illness and death on the job.

This map shows the current number of Hispanic or Latino outdoor workers per state. You can move the map and zoom in to your area of interest. Click on any state for more information, including the representation of Hispanic or Latino workers in different outdoor occupations. To open the legend, click on the circle on the bottom left of the map.

People identifying as Black or African American make up about 13 percent of the general population in the United States and about 14 percent of the outdoor workforce. More than 20 percent of workers in protective service occupations identify as Black or African American.

This map shows the number of outdoor workers identifying as Black or African American per state. You can move the map and zoom in to your area of interest. Click on any state for more information, including the representation of Black or African American workers in different outdoor occupations. To open the legend, click on the circle on the bottom left of the map.

When the temperature and humidity rise, so do the risks of heat-related illness and death. In an average year, exposure to extreme heat is the top cause of weather-related deaths in the United States. The CDC tallied more than 600 heat-related deaths per year between 1999 and 2010, though it likely contributed to many more. Recent research has found that more than one-third of heat-related deaths worldwide can be attributed directly to human-caused climate change.

Heat exposure can affect us in a variety of ways; some symptoms, such as fatigue, are a minor nuisance, while others are life-threatening. In general, adults over the age of 65, young children, people who are sick, people who are pregnant, people with mental or physical disabilities, people in low-income communities (who often lack access to air conditioning or the means to pay for it), and outdoor workers are at the greatest risk when it’s hot.

Protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat will require both reducing heat-trapping emissions—to reduce the number of days with extreme heat in the future—and implementing enforceable, science-based standards now for heat safety in outdoor workplaces.

When it comes to staying safe and healthy in the workplace, workers have a long history of advocating for themselves. The research presented in this story map shows how critical it is to support workers’ advocacy efforts in the face of climate change.  Add your voice to calls for change  so that every worker can come home safely at the end of their shift.