Los Angeles City Council finalizes $5 an hour hero pay emergency ordinance amid COVID pandemic abc7.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abc7.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
During Mayor Eric Garcetti s COVID-19 briefing last week, he spoke about his support for the ordinance. I absolutely 100% support the hero pay for our grocery workers, and with any good conscience, it shouldn t raise food prices because grocery stores are one area that have record profits, more money than they ve had before, Garcetti said. I hope they will see this and maybe be inspired by it instead of being threatened by it.
The Board of Supervisors on Feb. 23 adopted an urgency ordinance to require $5 additional pay for national grocery and drug retail employers in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.
While the original ordinance would have applied to employers with 500 or more employees nationwide, Councilwoman Diane Papan proposed raising the employee count to 750 or more so that smaller, independent employers would be excluded.
The City Council voted 5-0 in favor of the amended ordinance, which would apply to 10 companies in the city such as Safeway, Target, Trader Joe s and Chavez Supermarket.
Jennifer Chen, the city s economic development manager, said that Chavez Supermarket and Mollie Stone s Markets, both of which employ fewer than 1,000 employees nationwide, felt the most penalized by the ordinance as they have not enjoyed the same profits as larger, publicly traded companies and are ineligible for government loans afforded to smaller stores.
Los Angeles Mandates Hazard Pay For Grocery, Drug Store Workers courthousenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from courthousenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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While significant ink was spilled last summer evaluating whether Congress would pass the HEROES Act – House Democrats’ $3 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, the federal government was ultimately unable to implement an aid package that included, among other provisions, mandated “hazard pay” for essential workers. In response, several local and municipal governments have taken up the call and have recently implemented laws to require additional wage premiums for employees in the grocery and pharmacy industries. Unsurprisingly, these local initiatives have gained significant traction in California.
On January 22, the City of Long Beach implemented the Hero Pay for Front-Line Grocery Workers Ordinance (which expires in May 2021).The ordinance requires certain grocery stores to pay hourly employees $4 per hour on top of their regular rates of pay.The law applies to grocery stores with 300 or more workers nationwide and