COMP NEWS – Seattle is repealing its hazard pay ordinance for grocery employees over a year after its enactment. The ordinance has given grocery store workers an extra $4.00 an hour since early 2021.

On August 2, 2022, the Seattle City Council voted to repeal the city’s $4 per hour COVID-19 pandemic “hazard pay” requirements related to grocery employees. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell approved the measure the next day. As the pandemic persisted into the early days of 2021, the Seattle City Council enacted the Hazard Pay for Grocery Employees Ordinance, which required grocery businesses in Seattle to add $4 per hour of “hazard pay” to the rate of pay of grocery employees who were required to work during the pandemic. This $4 hourly premium had to be added to the wages of each employee regardless of an employee’s otherwise applicable hourly base pay rate.

The law affected large stores of over 10,000 or more square feet. It also made it illegal for grocery businesses to change pay rates in an effort to counteract the hazard pay bonus.

The law applied to stores with 10,000 or more square feet of grocery space and to certain other grocery businesses as well. The Seattle ordinance also required that signs be posted to ensure employees knew their rights, and it prohibited grocery businesses from altering their pay rates or structures in order to avoid or offset the hazard pay requirement.

The hazard pay requirement will remain in effect for 30 days after the ordinance’s repeal, officially ending on September 2, 2022.

To read more about Seattle’s hazard pay ordinance and its recent repeal, click here.

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