Malibu Mandates $5 Hero Pay For Grocery, Pharmacy Workers

MALIBU, CA — The Malibu City Council unanimously voted Monday to require chain grocery stores and pharmacies in town to pay their employees an extra $5 an hour in hazard pay until June.

The ordinance is modeled after a current ordinance affecting grocery stores in unincorporated areas of LA County, and will remain in effect until June 26, when the Council will consider extending it. The ordinance requires stores that are publicly traded or employ 300 or more people nationwide, or employ more than ten workers per store in Malibu - this applies to Ralphs, Pavilions, Kroger, CVS, and Whole Foods in Malibu - to implement the hazard pay, and notify their employees of their new rights in a conspicuous spot in the store. Some stores have already implemented hazard pay, and will be allowed to credit that amount towards the new requirement.

Conversely, the ordinance prohibits employers from lowering employee wages in order to offset the new pay requirements. The ordinance also protects employees from retaliation for asserting their rights, and grants recovery of attorney fees for up to three years. Employers found violating the ordinance would be subject to fines of $100 a day.

Similar ordinances have already been adopted in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Santa Ana, Long Beach, Montebello, San Jose, and Oakland.

Two people called in to oppose the ordinance, calling it government overreach and expressing concerns about how it might affect grocery stores and employees.

“If this was the city wanting to pay these guys I think it would be fine, but I don’t think the city should tell private companies what to pay, and if you’re gonna do it, what about the guys at Malibu Animal Hospital that take care of your dog or cat, or the folks at the gas station?” said Scott Dittrich.

Nick Buro said that he was speaking against the ordinance on behalf of Malibu Grocers and the California Grocers Association, two grocers unions. In February, the California Grocers Union sued to block Long Beach’s $4 an hour mandate. Buro said that in addition to a number of safety precautions, grocers have received an “unprecedented amount of supplemental pay leave in addition to already existing leave benefits.”

“The grocery work pay ordinance workers would mandate grocery stores to provide additional pay beyond what is economically feasible, with nearly 30 percent increase in employment costs,” he said. “This significant increase would severely impact store viability, and result in increased prices for groceries, limited operating hours, reduced hours for workers, fewer workers per store, and most concerning, possible store closures.”

While some stores have implemented bonus pay, it is sometimes as low as $2 an hour. CVS has offered one-time bonuses of $150 to $500 to pharmacists and employees, according to the Malibu Surfside News. Some supermarkets in Long Beach, which requires an extra $5 an hour, have closed since it passed its ordinance in January, but it is unclear if that is a direct result of the ordinance.
Councilmember Bruce Silverstein said that while he doesn’t normally support government intervention in business affairs, he advocated this bill because he feels it’s unfair that grocery workers in Malibu do not have the same benefits as workers just a few miles down the road.

“I am struck by the unfair position that the relatively few grocery and pharmacy employees in Malibu find themselves in view of the ordinances adopted by all of these nearby cities, especially when one considers that the risks of the frontline workers in Malibu include exposure to residents of those other areas that have brought the plague into Malibu,” he said. “I go to Ralphs all the time, the staff there is great...I want to see them taken care of.”

A city staff report cited a Brookings Institute study saying that low-wage workers have suffered the worst economic pain of the pandemic, and an NBC Investigation article that discovered 146 outbreaks in LA and Orange County supermarkets from Dec. 15, 2020-Jan. 15, 2021. The Brookings study also found that top grocery companies saw a 39 percent increase in profits over 2019, while frontline workers at the same companies only saw an increase of $1.11 an hour since the start of the pandemic.

Mayor Mikke Pierson said that he contacted all the affected grocery stores in Malibu to talk about the impacts of the ordinance, and is still supporting it.

“Every time I go in the market I marvel at the staffs in the market, there in that building all day long with hoards of people coming in, so I absolutely support this,” he said.

Related coverage:

LA Mandates Hazard Pay For Grocery And Pharmacy Workers | Los Angeles, CA Patch

Santa Monica City Council Approves 'Hero Pay' For Grocery Workers | Santa Monica, CA Patch

California Grocers Association Sues To Block Hero Pay | Hollywood, CA Patch