This NJ City Gave Employees Hazard Pay For Working During COVID

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — Employees of Trenton City, who worked in person during last year's COVID-19 pandemic received a hazard paycheck on Thursday.

Over 1,000 employees were eligible for the paycheck, with Trenton employing around 1,300 workers. Is the city the first municipality to give out such payments? Officials aren’t sure.

Funds from the American Rescue Plan were used to make direct payments of up to $7,000 to employees. Trenton received $73 million from President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.

"We're grateful that critical funding from the American Rescue Plan along with City Council support helped us follow-through on our long-term goal of supporting a workforce that endured hundreds of COVID-19 cases and still provided critical services to our residents throughout the pandemic," Mayor W. Reed Gusciora told Patch in a statement.

Around 25 percent of Trenton's workers contracted COVID-19, officials said.

In their federal aid spending plan, Gusciora said the city has allotted $8 million in hazard pay for city workers. This is part of the Trenton administration’s American Rescue Plan proposal.

"This is just one part of our overall plan to put this federal funding to work throughout our community," Gusciora said. "... including $15 million in direct support to Trenton residents, $22 million in essential infrastructure improvements, and more than $16 million in job training and business support programs."

The hazard pay covers the months from March 2020 through February 2021. Employees that took more time off in a month than they worked will not receive payment for that month, regardless of the reason.

Employees who were on long-term leave for the entire 12 months covered are also not eligible for any premium hazard pay, officials said.

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