Long Beach City Council passes resolution giving grocery workers extra $4 per hour in hazard pay
LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- The Long Beach City Council Tuesday evening passed a resolution that would require "hero pay" for all frontline grocery workers.
The planned urgency ordinance would order grocery store employers to pay their frontline employees an additional $4 an hour in hazard pay wages.
"When large corporations don't step up to provide hazard pay for grocery workers, we will step in and protect these heroes," Mayor Robert Garcia tweeted. "Thank you to the Long Beach City Council for adopting the emergency $4 hazard pay for grocery workers. I'm going to sign the law as soon as it hits my desk."
The urgency ordinance is expected to be voted on in early January. The hazard pay ordinance would expire after 120 days.
The resolution was introduced to the city council by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324.
According to a Brookings Institution analysis, many of the country's top retail companies have earned record-breaking profits during the pandemic, but that money has not made its way back to the essential workers.
Over 1,000 grocery workers within Long Beach's grocery store union have tested positive for COVID-19.
