Cities Can Use Their Federal Stimulus To Cover Up To $25,000 In Hazard Pay For Grocery Employees And Other Essential Workers forbes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forbes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Anaheim Considers Hourly Wage Increase for Some Workers
Anaheim, Calif. is the latest Orange County city to consider hazard pay also known as “hero pay” for certain employees.
City council will discuss during its May 11 meeting the possibility of a temporary pay hike of $3 to $5 per hour for grocery, retail, and drug store workers.
“While we celebrate [our essential workers] and thank them, what they really need is support in their wages,” Councilmember Jose Moreno, who requested the item, said during an April 27 meeting.
Santa Ana, Irvine, Costa Mesa and Buena Park previously enacted hero pay ordinances. Tustin was the most recent Orange County city to consider such a measure, but council rejected it with a 2-3 vote.
By Sasha Margulies, iHeart Media
May 3, 2021
The U-S Department of Agriculture estimates grocery bills will rise another 3%, on top of a nearly 4% increase from 2020.
Suppliers dealing with logistics issues and other pandemic-related logjams like labor shortages and inflation are passing along their costs. Nate Rose, with the California Grocers Association, says many California cities are dealing with mandates for pandemic hazard pay too, which also heaps additional costs onto customers.
April 19, 2021 10:15 AM
Outside an Aldi grocery store on Atlantic Ave. in Long Beach, signs read heroes work here. (Megan Garvey/LAist)
Two grocery stores in Long Beach closed permanently on Saturday after parent company Kroger took issue with the city s hero pay law.
Back in February, Kroger announced plans to close a Ralphs and a Food 4 Less, shortly after elected officials in Long Beach passed a temporary hazard pay mandate for large grocery chains.
The hero pay rules require larger employers to pay their frontline grocery workers an extra $4 per hour over four months. Proponents said the goal is to compensate employees who have faced enormous risk while working through the pandemic.
Kroger shuts down 2 stores after ‘hero pay’ mandate was implemented
Photo by: Mike Kalasnik/Flikcr (CC BY-SA 2.0) Monday, April 19, 2021 10:11 AM UTC
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Kroger is closing down two stores in California and reportedly, the decision was made after Long Beach approved the “hero pay” mandate. This new pay ordinance is requiring retail stores and pharmacies that employ 300 and more people to increase the per hour wage.
The “hero pay” ordinance
The “hero pay” was made as there are workers who are working through the pandemic and there are risks of COVID-19 infection in the workplace since they are exposed to the public. The order is for companies to increase the pay to $4 per hour.