Kroger, blasted for ending hazard pay, gave CEO $22 million
Kroger Co. is the parent company of Food 4 Less and Ralphs. The company has opted to close some locations because of local ordinances requiring temporary hazard pay during the coronavirus crisis.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
By Anders Melin
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Kroger Co. Chief Executive Rodney McMullen found himself in a hailstorm of criticism last spring over hazard pay to frontline workers.
In early 2020, as the coronavirus swept across the U.S., McMullen announced a $2 hourly hazard increase, or Hero Bonus, for store and warehouse workers. Two months later, the company ended the raise even as critics pointed out that the hazard remained.
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Paul Constant is a writer at Civic Ventures and a frequent cohost of the Pitchfork Economics podcast with Nick Hanauer and David Goldstein.
In this week s column, Constant talks about the hero pay raises some stores like Trader Joe s and Kroger adopted last year.
Kroger later blamed this raise for store closures, despite paying out billions in profits to the company s shareholders.
Last March, when lockdowns began, grocery store workers and delivery drivers were rightfully hailed as heroes of the pandemic. Even as restaurants and bars closed to stop the spread of coronavirus, grocery store employees risked their health, and the health of their families, to keep Americans fed while white-collar workers transitioned to home offices. From the very beginning of the pandemic they put on homemade masks to stock shelves, ring up customers, and keep the supply chain working when everything else shut down.