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8.A. - Page 16 of 21 <br />will continue or expand without additional federal funding. There are also no national or <br />state laws requiring employers (outside the federal government) to provide hazard pay to <br />workers during a public health emergency. <br />Thus, the provision of hazard pay to date has largely been voluntary and up to the <br />discretion, willingness, and resources of individual employers. The result is a patchwork of <br />intermittent, modest additional pay to only some frontline workers. Most essential <br />workers received no hazard pay at all. <br />Hazard pay mandates target companies earning <br />windfall pandemic profits <br />The new ordinances are targeted at some large companies with the greatest ability to pay, <br />while sparing small businesses and other employers that are struggling financially during <br />the pandemic. <br />In our recent report, we examined the record pandemic profits and the pandemic pay at 13 <br />of the largest retail and grocery companies in the country. Combined, the 13 companies <br />earned an additional $17.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2020 compared to 2019—a <br />striking 42% increase. We found that many of the top companies earned billions of dollars <br />during (and largely because of) the pandemic, but have shared little of their windfall with <br />frontline workers. More generous companies such as Target (which permanently raised its <br />starting wage to $15 per hour and has offered periodic bonuses) and Costco (which will <br />sustain its $2 per hour hazard pay through March, on top of its $15 per hour minimum <br />wage) stood out as exceptions. In contrast, grocery and pharmacy companies were among <br />the least generous employers in our analysis, despite booming profits and very low wages. <br />58 <br />