Climate change is intensifying heat waves, worsening air quality, and fueling more frequent wildfires—yet little is known about the roughly one in five US workers whose jobs regularly take them outdoors. This study provides a national portrait of outdoor workers’ demographics, health, employment benefits, and proximity to climate-related environmental hazards. The findings reveal where protections fall short and which workers face the greatest risks.
Why This Matters
Outdoor workers are disproportionately male, Hispanic, lower-income, and less likely to hold a college degree. They are more likely to be uninsured, lack paid sick leave, and work in self-employed or nonstandard arrangements—all factors that can limit their ability to avoid hazardous conditions or seek timely care. Meanwhile, occupational protections remain fragmented: only six states have outdoor heat standards, only three have wildfire smoke rules, and a proposed federal heat rule has stalled. Two states have preempted local heat ordinances entirely. Federal, state, and local policymakers need evidence on where outdoor workers live relative to climate hazards and what protections they lack.
What We Found
Outdoor workers made up 21.9 percent of the US workforce in 2023 and faced significant climate-related exposure. About 16.9 percent lived in counties in the top 5 percent nationally for unhealthy air quality days, and nearly one in three lived in counties with the highest wildfire risk (32.4 percent) and heat wave frequency (31.4 percent).
Compared with indoor workers, outdoor workers had substantially lower rates of employer-sponsored health insurance (57.3 percent versus 69.5 percent) and higher rates of uninsurance (16.0 percent versus 7.6 percent). Only 55.4 percent of outdoor workers had access to paid sick leave, compared with 70.4 percent of indoor workers. Self-employment was nearly twice as common among outdoor workers.
On health measures, outdoor workers reported similar overall health after accounting for demographic differences but had higher rates of work-related injuries (2.8 percent versus 1.1 percent in the past three months). Outdoor workers reported lower rates of anxiety and depression, which may reflect selection effects rather than lower burden, given documented mental health risks in occupations such as construction and emergency response.
How We Did It
We developed a replicable measure of outdoor work using the O*NET Work Context Questionnaire and linked it to three national surveys: the Current Population Survey, the National Health Interview Survey, and the American Community Survey. We then merged county-level environmental indicators—EPA Air Quality Index data and FEMA National Risk Index measures of wildfire and heat wave frequency—to characterize where outdoor workers live relative to climate hazards. The analysis described population distributions and associations; it did not estimate causal effects.
Additional Materials
An online appendix with supplemental methods, sensitivity analyses, and additional exhibits is available in the article’s supplemental materials on the Health Affairs website. This article was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
