Hazard pay continuing for Seattle grocery workers

SEATTLE — Hazard pay for many grocery workers will continue in Seattle after the city council declined to override a veto Tuesday.

Former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan vetoed a bill in December that would have ended hazard pay in January. She cited the omicron variant as a primary reason to keep the extra pay in place.

“Now is not the time to roll back the pay for these critical front-line workers,” Durkan said. “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.”

The council chose not to override the veto.

The hazard pay requires grocery stores with at least 500 workers to pay frontline employees an extra $4 per hour.

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