A version of this story first appeared on Berkeleyside’s sister site, the Oaklandside. Oakland grocery workers are getting a substantial hazard pay raise starting immediately. The City Council voted Tuesday to require large grocery stores to pay their employees an additional $5 per hour. The law will cover workers at popular stores like Cardenas Markets, Safeway/Albertsons, Save Mart, Target, Trader Joe’, and Whole Foods. Small independent stores are exempt. The pay raise is meant to compensate grocery store workers, among the state’s essential workforce, for the increased risks they have faced during the pandemic. According to a study published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, grocery workers are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 because they work in enclosed settings around numerous strangers where it’s difficult to socially distance themselves.