While some essential workers have been receiving additional pay during the pandemic, that extra money will soon go away for employees at major retailers and grocery stores.
The termination of hazard pay comes as many states begin to reopen, including Florida, Wisconsin and Nevada. Although new COVID-19 cases are going down in about half of U.S. states, the risk of contracting the virus remains.
“If an employer was paying hazard pay and stopped providing it, there’s very little an employee could do,” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, recently told Marketplace’s Kristin Schwab.
The Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t address hazard pay, only requiring that it’s included as part of a federal employee’s regular rate of pay when computing the employee’s overtime pay, according to the Labor Department.
Kate Bronfenbrenner, the director of labor education research at Cornell University, explained that hazard pay is usually a benefit that unions negotiate through collective bargaining.
In an interview with Recode on Wednesday, Amazon Senior Vice President Dave Clark said the company will extend hazard pay for warehouse workers through the end of May — but resume paying normal rates in June. In mid-March, the retail giant began paying warehouse and delivery workers an extra $2 an hour, along with double overtime pay.
Amazon’s minimum wage is $15 an hour for all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees across the U.S., according to the company’s website.
The grocery chain Kroger has also been offering an hourly $2 “hero bonus” to tens of thousands of essential workers but plans to discontinue that pay Sunday. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is protesting the decision, telling CBS MoneyWatch that “it’s clear the danger isn’t gone even as states reopen—neither should hero pay.”
According to the company, Kroger workers earn $15 an hour, or more than $20 if benefits like health care are factored in.
Other companies ending the additional pay soon include grocery chain Fred Meyer, makes the change Sunday, and Target, which extended its $2-an-hour increase to May 30.
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When does the expanded COVID-19 unemployment insurance run out?
The CARES Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in March, authorized extra unemployment payments, increasing the amount of money, and broadening who qualifies. The increased unemployment benefits have an expiration date — an extra $600 per week the act authorized ends on July 31.
Which states are reopening?
Many states have started to relax the restrictions put in place in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. Although social-distancing measures still hold virtually everywhere in the country, more than half of states have started to phase out stay-at-home orders and phase in business reopenings. Others, like New York, are on slower timelines.
Is it worth applying for a job right now?
It never hurts to look, but as unemployment reaches levels last seen during the Great Depression and most available jobs are in places that carry risks like the supermarket or warehouses, it isn’t a bad idea to sit tight either, if you can.
You can find answers to more questions here.
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Hazard pay ends soon at Amazon and other major companies - Marketplace
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