Los Angeles Embraces $5 Hazard Pay For Grocery, Pharmacy Workers

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles City Council drew a line in the sand Tuesday with unanimous support for an ordinance that would require large pharmacies and grocers to offer an additional $5 per hour hazard pay to employees during the pandemic.

The move is sure to meet resistance from the grocery industry, which has already proven willing to fight so-called "hazard pay" measures in court. L.A.'s decision will have ripple effects across the nation: Los Angeles is the largest city in California to pursue such a measure, and if other communities follow suit, it could have a dramatic impact on the profit margin of major retailers from Ralphs and Whole Foods to CVS and Target.

Industry groups have suggested such mandatory pay increases could have unintended consequences and force store closures, layoffs and price increases to be passed on to already-struggling consumers. Industry groups asked city leaders to hold off on the measure until a comprehensive economic impact study could be conducted.

The motion advanced by the City Council shaped the issue as an urgent matter of health and equity. "The health threat that these grocery workers face cannot be overstated — recent studies before the current surge report grocery workers to be five times more likely to test positive," said the original motion, which council President Nury Martinez and Councilmen Paul Koretz, Mitch O'Farrell and Curren Price introduced on Dec. 15. "These workers must be justly compensated for the clear and present dangers of doing their jobs during the pandemic by requiring their employers to provide hazard pay."

The council will still have to vote for an ordinance drafted by the city attorney in order for hazard pay to take effect. After Tuesday's vote, the city attorney will prepare a hazard pay ordinance that would require grocery and pharmacy retailers with 300 or more employees nationally and 10 or more employees on site to pay nonmanagers hazard pay for 120 days. The council also requested a report on the economic impact of the measure and the city's legal standing in the face of certain lawsuits.

The Los Angeles City Council is following in the footsteps of such Southern California cities as Santa Monica and Long Beach, which already approved hazard pay. Until now, Seattle was the largest city to enact hazard pay for grocery workers.

Long Beach city leaders enacted a $4 hazard pay law for retail essential workers. The California Grocers Association immediately sued Long Beach. Kroger Co., the parent company of Ralphs and Food 4 Less, announced plans on Monday to close two struggling Long Beach stores in response to the hazard pay ordinance.

"As a result of the city of Long Beach's decision to pass an ordinance mandating extra pay for grocery workers, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close long-struggling store locations in Long Beach," the company said in a statement. "This misguided action by the Long Beach City Council oversteps the traditional bargaining process and applies to some, but not all, grocery workers in the city.

"The irreparable harm that will come to employees and local citizens as a direct result of the city of Long Beach's attempt to pick winners and losers, is deeply unfortunate," the company added. "We are truly saddened that our associates and customers will ultimately be the real victims of the city council's actions."

Price said he doesn't believe the argument that the ordinance will cause grocery stores to close. "Stores are making record profits at this time, many up 30 percent or more in sales," he said. "So the argument that this is going to cause the stores to close down, I think, is unlikely."

UFCW 770, the local branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers union that represents food and retail workers, condemned Kroger and praised cities for supporting essential workers.

“Since the pandemic began, Kroger has made billions in profits because of the sacrifices of grocery workers who have been putting their own health and safety on the line every day. Rather than provide the hazard pay these grocery workers have earned and deserve, Kroger decided to threaten these workers and the community’s access to food in the middle of a public health crisis," a union representative said. “City leaders stepped up to take care of these essential grocery workers and ensure they receive hazard pay for the danger they face. Kroger closing these stores is truly outrageous conduct and a ruthless attempt to create a chilling effect that will discourage other cities from doing what is right and enacting hazard pay mandates that recognize the threat these workers face from COVID-19. Let us be very clear, this is not how you treat frontline essential workers that face daily and worsening exposure to COVID-19."

There have been at least 134 grocery worker deaths and 28,700 grocery workers infected or exposed nationwide, according to the union.

In a sign of the fraught pandemic politics surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine, Stuart Waldman, the president of the Valley Industry Commerce Association, chided state and local leaders for shifting vaccine priority from essential workers to older residents. He urged the council to hold off on the measure pending further economic study.

The Los Angeles City Council rejected his request. "Given how severe the pandemic is right now, given the risks that grocery workers are taking, we, in the [Economic Development and Jobs Committee] discussed the need to move this ordinance along parallel to the report, not waiting for the report first and then instituting the ordinance later," Councilwoman Nithya Raman said.

City News Service contributed to this report.