During the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of essential workers were racial and ethnic minorities, who were unable to stay at home or socially distance themselves, resulting in racial disparities in COVID-19. However, many COVID-19 emergency preparedness laws did not address employment conditions. Although most stay-at-home orders included social distancing mandates and other measures to stop the community spread of COVID-19, these requirements were not mandatory for essential businesses. Moreover, even though national and state worker health and safety laws required the adoption of policies to stop the workplace spread of COVID-19, these laws were not enforced. Thus, many racial and ethnic minorities were infected and died from COVID-19 because the emergency preparedness laws and plans did not address their increased exposure to COVID-19 due to employment conditions. This chapter paper proceeds as follows: Section II examines how the failure for emergency preparedness laws to provide all essential workers with paid sick leave, workers compensation, hazard pay, and health and safety protections has resulted in racial disparities in COVID-19 infections and deaths. Section III discusses why addressing employment conditions in emergency preparedness laws is consistent with state public health powers, an efficient use of limited public health funding, and an effective way to eradicate racial disparities in infections and deaths. Finally, based on state examples, Section IV provides suggestions for revising the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, including mandatory collection and public reporting of workplace infections and deaths disaggregated by race, ethnicity, occupation, and job.