World Essential Workers Day Date in the current year: March 15, 2024

Essential workers, also known as key workers or critical workers, are employees who provide services vital to the health and welfare of the population. They can be employed in both the private sector and the public sector.

Essential workers can work in a wide range of sectors including health and social care, childcare and education, public services, public safety and justice, first responders, transport and logistics, agriculture and food production, critical retail and wholesale, postal service, energy, communications, critical manufacturing, critical trades (plumbers, electricians, construction workers), finance, utilities, and more.

Essential workers have been around for a long time, but it was the COVID-19 pandemic that made people realize their importance. Most essential jobs cannot be done remotely, and billions of key workers around the globe risked being exposed to the deadly virus so that people in their communities had access to essential services and the economy kept going despite lockdowns.

Although essential workers provide services that are crucial to society, they are often underpaid and underappreciated. According to statistics, in 2018, half of American workers in low-wage occupations (with a median wage of less than $15 hours per hour) were essential workers, and this number probably became even higher during the pandemic. The situation in other parts of the world, especially in developing countries, isn’t much better. World Essential Workers Day was created to highlight this injustice.

The origins of World Essential Workers Day are somewhat unclear. According to National Today and some news websites, the holiday was created by Ja’nay Leeann Ratcliff, a nine-year-old girl from Kileen, Texas. Ja’nay learned about the importance of essential workers from her father, who’s a sanitation worker, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reached out to the mayor of Killeen, who designated March 15 as Essential Workers Day in his city.

However, National Day Archives and International Days claim that World Essential Workers Day was created by Ray Washington, a 26-year-old nurse who wanted to highlight the efforts of essential workers who risked their health and lives during the pandemic and prevent these efforts from being forgotten. The date of March 15 was chosen because on this day in 2020, the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States exceeded 3,000, and the CDC issued guidelines urging people to avoid gatherings of more than 50 people.

Be that as it may, essential workers definitely deserve to be praised and celebrated, and the best way to observe World Essential Workers Day is to take a moment to thank all essential workers in your community. Other ways to celebrate include donating to charity programs run by your local hospital, fire department or police force, and posting about the holiday on social media with the hashtags #WorldEssentialWorkersDay and #EssentialWorkersDay.