Extreme heat is rapidly reshaping the future of work, with the harshest impacts falling on informal, low-income, and climate-exposed workers.

During a recent World Bank Human Rights Trust Fund panel, Robert Meade, a thermal physiologist and postdoctoral researcher with the Salata Institute, shared early findings from a yearlong “shoe leather epidemiological study” in India. In collaboration with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Meade and other Harvard researchers are tracking heat exposure in the homes and workplaces of informal workers. Preliminary findings show that indoor temperatures can stay hotter than outdoors overnight – by as much as 18°F – and dangerous heat stress can persist months longer than previously thought.

Meade linked heat exposure to measurable harm, including poorer sleep, sustained cardiovascular strain, and earnings declines. He stressed that solutions require local partnerships and evidence-based interventions that reflect how people actually live and work.