Seattle City Council delays vote to end hazard pay for grocery store workers

After Seattle City Council members heard multiple comments from people about hazard pay for grocery store workers, the council delayed their vote on Tuesday to end the pay.

In January 2021, the council voted unanimously to approve legislation to provide hazard play to grocery store workers during the pandemic. The measure applies to grocery stores with at least 500 workers.

In January 2022, the council declined to override former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s December 2021 veto after the council had voted unanimously to repeal the hazard pay.

Durkan had cited the omicron variant as the primary reason to keep the extra pay of $4 per hour for those working on the frontlines.

Durkan said in January: “Now is not the time to roll back the pay for these critical front-line workers. This summer, I asked Council to not lift hazard pay for grocery workers as delta was emerging, and now as omicron is newly emerging, one of my last actions as mayor will be to protect this critical pay for our frontline workers.”