San Jose grocery stores will need to pay employees an additional $3 per hour thanks to an ordinance city council members passed Tuesday night.
The council voted 7-3 in favor of the hazard pay ordinance going into effect in about two months with councilmember Pam Foley recusing herself because of a conflict of interest in owning Amazon stock.
Mayor Sam Liccardo and councilmembers Dev Davis and Matt Mahan all voted against the ordinance, citing concerns over the potential economic impacts raising pay may bring to stores.
The three also voted against the original urgency ordinance at the Feb. 2 meeting, that would’ve put hazard pay into effect tomorrow if it had passed.
“I came out of last week's conversation pretty disappointed,” Mahan said in the meeting. “It felt to me like we were saying we should not try to educate ourselves about the potential unintended consequences of this policy.”
The ordinance would make retail food businesses that employ 300 or more people nationwide, follow the mandate and pay their workers $3 more for 120 days. After this allotted time, the council will analyze its impact on both workers and employers.
Councilmember Sergio Jimenez said he understands why his colleagues including Davis and Mahan wanted to analyze the ordinance more before passing it, but he said the people affected shouldn’t have to wait.
“I wish we had the time to study the heck out of this,” Jimenez said during the meeting. “I really wish we did but I just think these times don't lend themselves to that.”
Jimenez brought up this ordinance during the Feb. 2 meeting. Even though the council voted 6-3 to allow the city attorney to draft the urgency ordinance, Mahan has since drafted his own memorandum.
Mahan suggested in the memorandum: employers should be able to structure the hazard pay as a bonus; the ordinance should be restricted to publicly-traded companies; and to end the ordinance before the 120 day analysis period if the vaccine is made available to grocery workers.
Publicly traded companies refer to companies whose ownerships are organized via shares of stock and are intended to be freely traded such as Amazon, Kroger and Tesco. Mahan said this memorandum would “maximize the benefits while minimizing the costs,” meaning people could get paid while not paying more for groceries.
Mahan’s memorandum failed in a 3-7 council vote despite support from Davis and Liccardo.
Several San Jose community members spoke during public comment to call out Liccardo, Mahan and Davis for not supporting the ordinance.
“I’m extremely disappointed in those who voted against this ordinance,” John Gomez, a grocery worker, said during public comment in regard to last week's vote.
He also addressed Mahan’s memorandum saying it’s clear Mahan has the interest of large corporations rather than the interest of the community he serves.
“All [Mahan’s] memo does is support these large grocery corporations that are raking in the profits off the sweat and the hard work of their workers,” Gomez said.
Allison Winsatt, a grocery store worker in San Jose, also supported the hazard pay saying she wasn’t prepared for the responsibilities she and her coworkers are now doing.
“A lot of people feel pressured to keep going to work even when they feel sick because they don't have enough money,” Winsatt said in the meeting. “The COVID pay is only two weeks and it's one time so if you don't feel well, you end up having to take off multiple weeks at a time.”
Zoe Hammons, a San Jose State business marketing junior who works at a Trader Joe’s in Cupertino, said the hazard pay is beneficial for grocery workers. Trader Joe’s offers its workers a $4 hazard pay.
“People don't consider [those] who are working in grocery stores or necessary retail to be working in a hazardous environment,” Hammons said in a phone call. “We [grocery workers] see thousands of people a week, so I think it's absolutely necessary to be getting this hazard pay.”
