Hazard pay changed the lives of California grocery store employees during the pandemic and may have begun a long-term shift for lower-wage workers
Hazard pay and other pandemic-related pay increases have proven to be a boon for many essential workers, helping them pay for medical bills or save for a rainy day. Industry groups, however, say those policies could force some smaller employers out of business or cause them to think twice about operating in a higher-wage city.
In California and across the country, wages for lower- and middle-class workers have been stagnant for decades, even as the economic productivity of companies has grown. The inflation-adjusted hourly earnings for low-wage workersfrom 1979 to 2018, according to the left-leaning California Budget and Policy Center.Unions and anti-poverty activists have argued for years that many American workers are paid too little to live on and have pushed for higher minimum wages, among other policies.
In late December, as Covid cases were raging through Los Angeles, Lopez noticed during a lunch break that she had begun to lose her sense of smell and taste. Terrified, she rushed to get herself and her family tested. She was infected, along with her husband and her parents, whom they’d recently visited.
It was around this time that Lopez heard about the hazard pay proposal that Los Angeles County, where her store is located, would soon adopt. For 120 days starting in March, the county required grocery stores and some retailers to give their workers $5 more per hour.
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