Retail workers’ hazard pay cut
Raises, bonuses fade; risks grow
With coronavirus cases rising across the country, retailers are preparing for another rush from shoppers worried about new lockdowns and pandemic shortages.
But many retail workers, heralded as heroes during the first wave of the pandemic, are not being provided with the same level of bonuses and raises this time, even as the health risks for them increase. Even as some companies have announced new hazard pay in recent days, some industry observers say many retailers are not sharing enough of the profits they have earned during the pandemic with their workers but are instead benefiting shareholders through stock buybacks.
Amazon, which said last month that its quarterly profit had increased nearly 200%, ended its $2-an-hour pay raise for workers earlier this year and then provided a pandemic-related bonus in June, but a spokeswoman said no new hazard pay was planned.
Walmart, which reported another big increase in quarterly sales Tuesday, had paid a series of special cash bonuses, but the company
has not raised wages broadly as a way to reward workers during the pandemic.
Grocery chain Kroger offered raises at the start of the pandemic and bonuses through mid-June, but those have ended. Employees nationwide have staged protests outside stores asking Kroger to reinstate the pay, especially given its booming business — sales are soaring, and it recently said its 2021 business results “will be higher than we would have expected prior to the covid-19 pandemic.” This week, the company told workers that they would receive discounts at its fuel centers and a $100 store credit as a “holiday appreciation.”
On Wednesday, Lowe’s said in its quarterly earnings report that it had already paid more than $800 million in pandemic-related benefits to employees. At the same time, the company said it expected to buy back about $3 billion of its own stock in the fourth quarter, after spending about $1 billion on buybacks and dividends in the third quarter.
“We ask workers with the least to sacrifice the most, and they are not even getting compensated in return,” said Molly Kinder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, who is preparing a report that ranks which largest retailers have been most generous to their workers during the pandemic. “The companies have the money to do this.”
The issue of hazard pay for retail workers reflects the harsh reality of the pandemic economy — a case of shifting supply and demand. In March and April, when retailers were overrun with customers and workers were calling in sick or quitting, the companies needed to give incentives to employees to stay on the job.
HEADLINES FADED, RISKS DIDN’T
But when the additional unemployment benefits, totaling $600 a week, expired at the end of July, many more Americans needed jobs, making it easier for retailers to attract and retain workers.
The public attention has also waned, as news media accounts of workers getting sick from the virus faded and focus turned to protests over police violence and the election. “The headlines have moved on,” Kinder said.
But the risks to retail workers have not. As the number of new infections hits daily records, retail workers must spend hours inside, dealing with customers who may refuse to wear masks or wear them incorrectly. A large part of this burden has fallen on female, Black and Hispanic employees, who make up a sizable proportion of retail workers.
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents nearly 1 million grocery workers, said that 108 of its grocery workers had died as a result of covid-19 and that more than 16,300 had been infected or exposed to the virus.
‘APPRECIATION PAY’
A few big retailers have increased wages. Best Buy, which offered “appreciation pay” to hourly front-line workers starting in March, raised its starting rate for U.S. employees to $15 an hour Aug. 2.
Home Depot said Tuesday that it would shift from paying a temporary weekly bonus to associates in stores and warehouses to permanently increasing wages for its hourly front-line workers. It’s not clear how generous those raises will prove for each worker. The company, which noted that average wages varied across the country, said it would invest $1 billion in the raises on an annualized basis.
Absent federal action, some states have allocated funds that they received as part of the giant stimulus package, known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, to frontline workers.
In Vermont, retailers are invited to apply for state grants that can benefit their workers who have stayed on the job during the pandemic. The employers pass the money through to the workers, acting only as conduits.
But some retailers — wary of being perceived as accepting aid in place of struggling businesses — have blocked their workers from accessing the money, baffling state lawmakers.
Walmart, which operates six stores in Vermont employing hundreds of workers, had originally declined to apply for the grants. Walmart initially told Vermont officials that the money should go to smaller businesses. But Tuesday, a Walmart spokeswoman said the company had changed its mind.
“After further discussions with local and state officials, we’re pleased to hear there was sufficient funding to provide bonuses to all small and medium-sized businesses in Vermont and that there are remaining funds for employees of larger companies,” the spokeswoman said.
In total, Walmart has spent $1.1 billion on bonuses rewarding its employees who worked during the pandemic.