Grocery chains are coming under pressure to boost hourly employees pay again, as municipalities push continued aid for frontline workers nearly a year into the Covid-19 pandemic.
Seattle, Long Beach, Calif., and other cities have passed new rules requiring supermarkets to provide employees temporary bonus pay. Others, including Los Angeles, are considering similar mandates designed to help employees who have to show up for work in public-facing jobs like cashiers or baggers and risk exposure to the coronavirus.
Some grocers are pushing back, saying that shoppers will bear the costs. Grocery executives say rules to raise wages in some cases by as much as $5 an hour will increase expenses by about 30% in stores and squeeze already thin profit margins. Some chains including Kroger Co. say they will close some stores in areas with new wage mandates, while others say they are boosting food prices or may cut back on services like checkouts.
Seattle City Council passes bill requiring $4 an hour in hazard pay for grocery store workers
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A sheet of plexiglass separates cashier Joselyn Jimenez from customers in line at ShopRite of Commerce St. in Stamford, Conn. Monday, March 30, 2020. Many grocery stores are taking precautions in preventing the spread of coronavirus including signs promoting social distancing and plexiglass between shoppers and cashiers.Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut MediaShow MoreShow Less
2of3Angela Douglas (left) restocks produce as customers shop at Bi-Rite Market in the Mission District of San Francisco, Calif. Friday, November 20, 2020. With rising COVID cases, retailers, including grocers, are wary of surging crowds, and possible panic shopping not seen since March, over the holiday seasons.Jessica Christian / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
Seattle proposal would give grocery store workers hazard pay amid coronavirus pandemic
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The proposal would add an additional $4 an hour for grocery store workers.
Up until November, Maggie Breshears worked at a Seattle Fred Meyer at a job she loved. She got to know customers, saw kids grow up, helped people in the store and served her community.
But when the coronavirus pandemic began, everything changed. Being in the store became just scary, said Breshears, who is also on the executive board of UFCW 21, the union which represents grocery store workers in Seattle and the state.
At the start of the pandemic, grocery stores were taking a number of steps to try to keep the community and workers safe, including stepping up cleaning and sanitation procedures and offering hazard pay to workers. But by the summer, the hazard pay benefits ended even as coronavirus cases began to surge again, and grocery store workers said things felt no less dangerous t