$5 raise OKd for grocery, drugstore workers
Many San Francisco grocery and drugstore workers will see a $5 per hour bump in pay after the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an emergency ordinance Tuesday. The pay increases are to compensate them for doing dangerous, inperson work during the pandemic.
Unions representing the workers, including the United Food and Commercial Workers, have cheered the move as a fair increase for workers whose inperson work has allowed thousands of city residents to do their jobs from home with less risk of getting the coronavirus.
The California Grocers Association has opposed the measure, along with other similar temporary pay increases around the state. The industry group has said the increases could result in layoffs and price increases and hurt midsize local chains like Mollie Stone’s which have already given workers bonuses during the pandemic.
Not all businesses and workers will be affected by the changes. The increases would apply to employees who make less than $35 per hour or less
than $75,000 annually. San Francisco’s minimum wage currently stands at $16.07 per hour.
Grocery stores and retail locations with pharmacies, like drugstores, with 500 or more employees worldwide and a minimum of 20 employees in San Francisco will have to pay the increased wages.
Janitors and security guards working at those locations will also be included, while smaller “corner” grocery stores will be exempt.
Board President Shamann Walton said before the vote that many voluntary pay increases had expired last summer, but that grocery stores have continued to record higher profits during the pandemic.
“Grocery workers and retail pharmacy workers have not stopped working in order to make sure our residents have access to groceries and supplies,” he said.
Stores will have to redistribute some of those gains to workers in San Francisco under the new ordinance, potentially cutting into profits.
“The bottom line of all businesses covered by the hazard pay ordinance could be negatively affected and the smaller businesses covered by the ordinance may be affected the greatest,” Paul Kramer, director of compliance at scheduling software company WorkForce Software, said in an email.
Kramer said increased pay rates could lead some stores to use more technology and employ fewer people, and potentially close stores to cut costs, a step taken by national chain Kroger in Long Beach in response to that city’s hazard pay ordinance.
Other unionbacked industries, like health care workers, are also pushing for pay increases to compensate them for frequent potential exposure to the virus. A recently proposed bill backed by the Service Employees International UnionUnited Healthcare Workers, AB650, would require health care companies employing more than 100 employees to pay bonuses next year to most employees who worked during the pandemic.
Other Bay Area jurisdictions have already passed ordinances of their own for grocery and other workers.
On Monday, Daly City’s council approved a similar ordinance. The San Mateo City Council approved pay increases for grocery and drugstore workers with more than 750 employees nationwide, a threshold that spares some midsize chains.
The Oakland City Council unanimously adopted a rule requiring larger grocery stores to increase workers wages by $5 per hour. That move resulted in the grocers association filing a lawsuit over its implementation. The group has also sued the city of San Leandro over its ordinance.
San Jose’s City Council also decided to temporarily give employees at large grocery stores an extra $3 per hour. Late last month, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors also passed a temporary $5 per hour increase for some workers, while Berkeley and South San Francisco also recently passed their own hazard pay ordinances.