Lapse in Appropriations

For workplace safety and health, please call 800-321-6742; for mine safety and health, please call 800-746-1553; for Job Corps, please call 800-733-5627 and for Wage and Hour, please call 1-866-487-9243 (1 866-4-US-WAGE).  This website is currently not being updated due to the suspension of Federal government services. The last update to the site was 10/1/2025.  Updates to the site will start again when the Federal government resumes operations.

The Essential Workers of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Essential Workers

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, our nation’s essential workers redefined what it truly means to show up for your neighbor. When everyone else was encouraged to stay at home to be safe, essential workers did not have that option. These workers gave the nation a new understanding of and appreciation for the vital jobs they do and the services they provide us every single day.

The essential workers who make our economy function, from care workers to farmworkers, nurses to grocery store clerks, childcare workers to teachers, port truck drivers and warehouse workers and so many more who make life possible for the rest of us are disproportionately low paid workers. They are disproportionately women. They are disproportionately workers of color.

Since 2002, the Department has inducted not only individuals but groups of workers whose collective contributions shaped and inspired us: the 9/11 rescue workers, the workers from the Memphis Sanitation Strike, farmworkers who led the farmworker movement, the Chinese railroad workers.