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Who's In and Who's Out under Workplace COVID Symptom Screening?

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Listed:
  • Krista J. Ruffini
  • Aaron Sojourner
  • Abigail K. Wozniak

Abstract

COVID symptom screening, a new workplace practice, is likely to affect many millions of American workers in the coming months. Eleven states already require and federal guidance recommends frequent screening of employees for infection symptoms. This paper provides some of the first empirical work exploring the tradeoffs employers face in using daily symptom screening. First, we find that common symptom checkers will likely screen out up to 7 percent of workers each day, depending on the measure used. Second, we find that the measures used will matter for three reasons: many respondents report any given symptom, survey design affects responses, and demographic groups report symptoms at different rates, even absent fluctuations in likely COVID exposure. This last pattern can potentially lead to disparate impacts, and is important from an equity standpoint.

Suggested Citation

  • Krista J. Ruffini & Aaron Sojourner & Abigail K. Wozniak, 2020. "Who's In and Who's Out under Workplace COVID Symptom Screening?," NBER Working Papers 27792, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27792
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kumar, S. & Quinn, S.C. & Kim, K.H. & Daniel, L.H. & Freimuth, V.S., 2012. "The impact of workplace policies and other social factors on self-reported influenza-like illness incidence during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(1), pages 134-140.
    2. Abigail Wozniak, 2015. "Discrimination and the Effects of Drug Testing on Black Employment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(3), pages 548-566, July.
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    10. Damon Jones & David Molitor & Julian Reif, 2019. "What do Workplace Wellness Programs do? Evidence from the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 1747-1791.
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    12. Abigail Wozniak, 2020. "Disparities and Mitigation Behavior during COVID-19," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 32, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wichmann, Bruno & Wichmann, Roberta, 2022. "COVID-19 and Indigenous health in the Brazilian Amazon," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    2. Zachary Swaziek & Abigail Wozniak, 2020. "Disparities Old and New in US Mental Health during the COVID‐19 Pandemic," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 709-732, September.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J5 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • K3 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

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