Letter to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader - Rep. Grijalva Leads 41 Members of Congress in Urging Hazard Pay and Protections for Essential Workers to Help Address COVID-19 Impact Disparities

Letter

Leader Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy,

As the COVID-19 crisis expands so do obvious distinctions between socio-economic classes.
While many white-collar professionals can follow social distancing guidelines, essential bluecollar workers are tasked with holding our country together by delivering the hands-on vital
services we need to survive. We ask that the next COVID-19 bill require employers take action
to protect workers and include premium pay to supplement low-income workers and to ensure
this crisis doesn't further exacerbate class inequalities.

Workers across our nation are taking enormous risks, sometimes for poverty wages, to allow our
nation to continue to function. Frontline health care providers are selflessly risking their own
lives to save others. While some corporations have begun to supplement pay, it is not enough,
and many workers are left out. Businesses need to take immediate stringent actions to protect
their employees from the hazards presented by the novel coronavirus. The next package should
include a requirement for OSHA to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard that requires
employers to implement protections for these at-risk workers.

Future legislation should support supplemental pay that reflects the work and hazards these
individuals are encountering on a daily basis. Eligibility for the additional pay should include,
but not be limited to, health care workers along the spectrum of care, grocery workers, restaurant
workers, child care providers, public sector workers (including police, fire, corrections, postal),
farmworkers, utility workers, transportation workers, sanitation workers and other hourly
employees deemed essential. Federal employees who are required to report to work, including
Title 38 employees with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Transportation Security
Administration, and the Federal Aviation Administration should also be included. Federal
workers who cannot work remotely are in immediate danger of exposure, and current protocols
have no guarantees of protection. The legislation should include a full tax credit or other form of
reimbursement for businesses under 500, to be appropriately scaled down for larger employers.
Business participation in the supplemental compensation should be mandatory.

We are asking these individuals and their families to sacrifice so much for our nation. It is
imperative that we make every effort to prevent this crisis from being one that is
disproportionately borne by the working class. Instead we should use this as an opportunity to
pay them their full worth -- a worth that has been undervalued in many cases for far too long.

Sincerely,