A number of cities within the U.S. are debating whether or not to supply or re-establish hazard pay for staff on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The discussions come as extremely the contagious Omicron variant has unfold all through the U.S., inflicting instances to spike in latest months.

In Portland, Maine, metropolis officers are contemplating whether or not to carry again hazard pay for staff, the Portland Press Herald reported this week.

The Portland Metropolis Council is predicted to vote on an modification to the town's masks mandate ordinance this month that may re-establish hazard pay so long as the masking requirement is in place.

"I am unsure how it is going to be voted on," Portland Metropolis Councilor Victoria Pelletier, who's sponsoring the modification, informed the newspaper.

"But when we have now a masks mandate we must be speaking about hazard pay and if we're asking people to indicate up and overexpose themselves to the pandemic, we want to ensure we're offering them that degree of pay and investing in them," Pelletier added.

In Evanston, Illinois, metropolis officers are mulling a proposal that may require hazard pay for grocery retailer staff throughout declared states of emergency, equivalent to a storm, or a surge in COVID instances. The proposal at present being thought-about by Evanston's metropolis council would apply to grocery shops with 500 or extra workers, based on the Chicago Tribune.

In Macon, Georgia, the Macon-Bibb County Fee debated this week whether or not to offer hazard pay to county workers. Based on Georgia information station WMAZ, Superior Courtroom Clerk Erica Woodford requested for $50,000 for hazard pay for her workers, noting that they have not stopped working throughout the pandemic. A vote on the matter has been postponed to a future assembly.

Which Cities Are Considering Restoring Hazard Pay
Because the Omicron variant continues to unfold, cities throughout the U.S. are wanting into providing hazard pay. Right here, a girl testing at one of many many registers partitioned for COVID security at a ShopRite on January 8 in Clark, New Jersey. Michael Loccisano

In late January, officers in Seattle moved to permit hazard pay for grocery staff within the metropolis to proceed. In December, former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan vetoed a invoice that may have ended the profit for grocery staff, noting the rise in COVID instances attributable to the Omicron variant.

"When organized labor and the grocery shops labored with metropolis council to eradicate hazard pay, they may not foresee the approaching and fast rise of Omicron that has taken maintain in the present day," Durkan wrote to the town council on the time, based on Washington information station KING.

Based on the station, metropolis councilors declined to override the previous mayor's veto of the laws, extending the coverage which requires grocery shops with 500 or extra workers to pay frontline staff an additional $4 per hour.