Grocery store workers hazard pay

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Is anyone else irritated by the fact that there are countless professions who are required to work during covid but the new is always revolving around grocery store employee needing hazard pay? What about nurses, doctors, hvac, etc..what are your thoughts?

Specializes in BLS, ACLS, CARDIAC, ER.

With your statement emergent, are you ignoring the fact that some nurses stand all day on their 12 hour shifts? Some nurses have managers breathing down their necks as well. We also deal with many members of our community depending on what specialty you are in. Our jobs are just as stressful. The whole point of grocery store jobs is to pay minimum wage. I also started out working as a deli clerk but that should serve as a means to want something better...aka the america dream. Salaries and pay are based on your education and experience. They don't need a college degree to do grocery work so the job is minimum wage. Nurses get paid according to their education and experience so the starting pay is "our minimum wage" . To me, as I said earlier, everyone dealing with covid needs hazard pay because we are all stressed and over it.

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If I had a choice of my job, or running a cash register for their version of hazard pay, I would keep my job.

I have been in a bar exactly once since the start.  That was a few weeks ago, went into a bar compliant with all local regulations to see my buddy the bartender.  Despite this bar being compliant with industry best practices, I was shocked to see him in the center of a round bar surrounded by maskless drinkers.

Compared to the Covid positive patient I had today while wearing an Envo mask, gown......  His risk looked appalling to me.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
5 hours ago, 1gr8trnstudent said:

With your statement emergent, are you ignoring the fact that some nurses stand all day on their 12 hour shifts? Some nurses have managers breathing down their necks as well. We also deal with many members of our community depending on what specialty you are in. Our jobs are just as stressful. The whole point of grocery store jobs is to pay minimum wage. I also started out working as a deli clerk but that should serve as a means to want something better...aka the america dream. Salaries and pay are based on your education and experience. They don't need a college degree to do grocery work so the job is minimum wage. Nurses get paid according to their education and experience so the starting pay is "our minimum wage" . To me, as I said earlier, everyone dealing with covid needs hazard pay because we are all stressed and over it.

First time I've ever been bummed the "dislike" button went away.

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Specializes in Mental health, substance abuse, geriatrics, PCU.
7 hours ago, 1gr8trnstudent said:

With your statement emergent, are you ignoring the fact that some nurses stand all day on their 12 hour shifts? Some nurses have managers breathing down their necks as well. We also deal with many members of our community depending on what specialty you are in. Our jobs are just as stressful. The whole point of grocery store jobs is to pay minimum wage. I also started out working as a deli clerk but that should serve as a means to want something better...aka the america dream. Salaries and pay are based on your education and experience. They don't need a college degree to do grocery work so the job is minimum wage. Nurses get paid according to their education and experience so the starting pay is "our minimum wage" . To me, as I said earlier, everyone dealing with covid needs hazard pay because we are all stressed and over it.

I get where you're coming from, but nursing is a dirty job. Infectious pathogens are simply par for the course. Our entire occupation is a hazard physically and emotionally.  If you got hazard pay from your company, they'd probably just turn around and say "Oh no raises for the next 2 years." or "We're gonna stop that 3% 401k contribution." or some other capitalistic BS that these companies pull whenever they face a financial "hardship". And how much money are you wanting in hazard pay? Nurses develop depression, anxiety, substance abuse disorders, commit suicide in response to the stress of healthcare, should we receive compensation for that too? At what point will our pay justify the dangers we face? 

Nurses are being viewed more positive than ever, and it would probably behoove us to save our demands for adequate staffing ratios and more safety in the workplace versus belly aching that minimum wage workers are being paid a little bit more money to be exposed to COVID.

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Specializes in ER.

You can't, on the one hand, groan and moan that CEOs are getting big bonuses and raking it in, and then begrudge the lowly, uneducated grocery workers hazard pay, because if they want more money they should go get more education.

If you want more money maybe you should get a business degree and become a CEO.

 

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Specializes in Mental health, substance abuse, geriatrics, PCU.
3 hours ago, Emergent said:

You can't, on the one hand, groan and moan that CEOs are getting big bonuses and raking it in, and then begrudge the lowly, uneducated grocery workers hazard pay, because if they want more money they should go get more education.

If you want more money maybe you should get a business degree and become a CEO.

 

This is a good point. The little guy won this battle and is getting some extra pay, that's a victory, even if it isn't necessarily ours. 

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On 2/13/2021 at 3:04 PM, DowntheRiver said:

Welcome to Florida. I'm a Florida native. 

I had to quit my job as an Oncology nurse because I did not feel safe around my co-workers while pregnant. One flew to Wyoming, came back with COVID,  and had a super spreader Thanksgiving event where 15 people came back positive. She then proceeded to work 3 days asymptomatic. None of my coworkers would get the vaccine and they were constantly pulling their masks down or off. ETA: They all believe this is just a flu and that our immune system naturally fights it off. 

We just hosted the Super Bowl and people all over the country saw how the locals acted here. All I want to do is just go to BBB for 20 minutes and test some strollers but I can't even do that because people just don't care here.

I did get my first Pfizer at 13+4 on Thursday. The nurses in the vaccine triage area were talking about me (after I walked around the corner) and getting the vaccine while pregnant. They were all "I'd never do it." My pregnancy brain may be broken but my ears worked just fine. They knew I was a nurse, too, because that's how I qualified to get the vaccine. 

That when you given them a public *** chewing and a complaint.  Don’t tolerate being treated this way.

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I support grocery workers getting hazard pay.  Not only are they face-to-face with countless members of the public daily, but they often have to be the mask police too.  I wish other food workers like meat packing employees and farm workers could get it too.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

Again this is just another example of where the anger/frustration is displaced - the issue is with these healthcare corporations and how they treat their employees. 

That being said, I loved getting hazard pay when covid first hit but now that it’s clearly something that isn’t going away, I understand why hazard pay wouldn’t stay either; it’s part of the job. As long as I have the appropriate PPE and staffing, I’m not going to expect extra pay.

I am happy for any workers of any industry who are getting hazard pay though, especially for ones like grocery store workers who really didn’t sign up for this type of stuff.

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Specializes in Peds.

I am angry that CNA's and HHa's are not getting hazard pay ,and most only make $2 more than grocery store workers.

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We are taught infection control and sterile technique and how to properly don and doff PPE. They are not. When I worked in a grocery store, a customer complained because the kid in the deli department blew on his gloves to get them apart (the cheap, clear plastic things that don’t fit anybody’s hand) then sliced up her roast beef with those gloves he’d just blown on. They’re also getting yelled at, cussed out, flipped off by people refusing to wear a mask. I’ve told my husband that I feel safer at work, where everyone has to wear a mask and we have our full PPE than going to Wal-Mart where half the customers refuse to wear a mask and most of the employees have theirs on as a mustache or an earring. Plus, grocery store workers don’t make much at all. 

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

Let me preface to say that I do not think/expect to make more money due to Covid because I already have a comfortable income, but I was watching the news this morning that said a new state mandate would insure Grocery Store Workers make an extra $125.00/day (31,250.00/yer) on top of the $18/hr ($36,000.00/yr) they already make. I don't know about other states so I am talking about California. In Calfornia Grocery Checkers have strong unions with no cost to employee health Insurance, Employer matched 401K retirement accounts and in some cases pensions to supplement Social Security. All for a job that requires virtually no education and minimal training. 

So with these wage increases most grocery checkers in CA will make a pre-tax income og $67,000.00 per year which is as much as an entry-mid level professional. More power to them if they get it. 

So part of the news story had to do with Grocery Store Closures of under-performing stores, Many of them located in food deserts. which will make the average person travel farther and pay more for groceries. I doubt very much that those stores will reopen once the pandemic is over and things have returned to normal.

Hppy

 

 

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