Cleveland.com: Sen. Sherrod Brown wants some workers to get hazard pay during coronavirus emergency
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown wants the next coronavirus-related stimulus package that Washington produces to include hazard pay, or “Pandemic Premium Pay,” as he puts it, to provide time and a half wages to workers at the front line of the pandemic including doctors, nurses, grocery store workers, building cleaners, letter carriers, and transit workers.
On Tuesday, Brown wrote a letter to President Donald Trump that sought the extra compensation for workers, as well as additional precautions to protect them from workplace exposure to the COVID-19 virus. Brown’s office said his letter followed statements Trump made during a Monday interview on FoxNews, when he was asked whether he’d consider hazard pay for people like emergency room nurses who don’t qualify for stimulus bill money, but whose expenses have increased tremendously during the pandemic.
Trump said the White House is “looking at that,” through providing funding to hospitals.
“These are really brave people,” said Trump. “We are asking the hospitals to do it and consider something, including bonuses, and I think they’re entitled to it. If anybody is entitled to it, they are.”
Brown’s letter took it further, suggesting extra money for workers at a variety of other “essential businesses,” to compensate them for the commitment and sacrifices they’ve made “at great risk to them and their families.” He also said the extra money should be made available to part-time workers and independent contractors, for all of their hours worked, it should be provided in their regular paychecks, and it should be “retroactive from the beginning of the public health emergency and last for its duration.”
“Many health care workers have already fallen ill, and at least three have died as a result of the coronavirus,” Brown’s letter continued. “Additionally, there are reports of workers contracting the virus in grocery stores and other places of employment. Providing Pandemic Premium Pay will not mitigate frontline workers’ health risks, which is why your Administration must also quickly publish an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) that requires employers to implement comprehensive infectious disease exposure control plans to protect frontline health care and all other essential workers from the coronavirus. Worker health is public health, and we must protect the health of workers to protect the public.”
The letter did not discuss where money for the added pay would come from.
Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman on Tuesday told reporters that he believes there will be another stimulus package “focused on getting the economy back on track,” that will fill any gaps left by previous legislation. He suggested it might include aid for local governments and midsized cities that are getting less tax revenue but have higher expenses because of the coronavirus.
Portman said he hopes that during consideration of the next relief bill, “we could also look at what are the best practices to actually stimulate economic activity again to get people back to work where they can get a salary, where they’re paying taxes to our state and local governments.”
