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New viral variants spur calls for better masks

Jan 28, 2021
Front-line workers are especially at risk indoors. Wearing a cloth and surgical mask together is an option to N95s, one doctor says.
Pedestrians wearing face masks walk past a "Prevent the spread of COVID-19" banner in Los Angeles on Jan. 19.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Biden executive actions target LGBTQ discrimination

Jan 20, 2021
The president is strengthening workplace protections and rolling back the military ban on transgender service.
LGBTQ rights supporters rallied outside the Supreme Court in Washington in 2019 as the court held oral arguments in three cases dealing with workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

There's a push to mandate hazard pay at the local level

Jan 13, 2021
With COVID-19 spreading out of control, it's never been riskier for front-line workers.
Cashier Olga Jiminez, clad in mask and gloves, at work at Presidente Supermarket in Miami in April. Many companies that provided hazard pay early in the pandemic eventually phased it out.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Amid persistent economic doldrums and widespread uncertainty, few companies entered 2021 with expansion in mind.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Parents continue to slog through remote school

Jan 7, 2021
Many schools remain closed as COVID-19 cases increase. Parents struggle to manage the competing demands of work and their kids' learning.
FG Trade via Getty Images

Unplugging from work is extra hard ... and needed this year

Dec 25, 2020
It can be harder to disconnect from work, when the home is also your office.
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States battle over remote-worker income tax

Dec 24, 2020
Which state should get income taxes when out-of-state workers no longer go to the office?
A teacher works in her home office in Virginia. Some workers have stopped commuting across state borders, provoking skirmishes over tax revenue.
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

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Teachers move near the front of the line for vaccine

Dec 21, 2020
It's up to states to decide if teachers qualify as frontline essential workers, given that they're able to work remotely.
A teacher helps her first-grade student during in-person class at an elementary school in Stamford, Connecticut, in September.
John Moore/Getty Images

Essential worker parents struggle with remote school

Dec 17, 2020
Those who work outside the home must often rely on family or pay for help to supervise kids.
Dealing with daycare disruptions and remote school have been especially hard on essential worker parents.
Rose Conlon/Marketplace

Which essential workers should be prioritized for vaccines?

Dec 11, 2020
Pilots, bankers, meatpacking plants and teachers all say they should be first for limited doses.
Farm laborers wash their hands before work in April in Greenfield, California. How are "essential workers" classified when it comes to vaccine distribution?
Brent Stirton/Getty Images