COVID-19: An Essential Employees Perspective

The Beginning of COVID-19

COVID-19 came and in the blink of an eye, the world completely changed. In one night, the world went from perfectly normal to mass hysteria worldwide. I see why the world was shut down. We were met by a virus unknown that still to this day holds our world captive. Unfortunately, regardless of the fact that there is a global pandemic going on, people still have to eat, get groceries, repair cars, go to the hospital, etc. That means that employees that work in businesses deemed essential still go to work daily regardless of a global pandemic because life does not stop for a virus.

Shouldn't essential employees get paid statutory COVID-19 pay? I know some businesses are providing that, but what about people who work for small businesses? According to an article titled, "Unemployment Insurance Relief During COVID-19 Outbreak," "The new law creates the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which provides an additional $600 per week to individuals who are collecting regular UC (including Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees and Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers, PEUC, PUA, Extended Benefits, Short time Compensation, Trade Readjustment Allowances, Disaster Unemployment Assistance, and payments under the Self Employment Assistance program)." (https://www.dol.gov/coronavirus/unemployment-insurance) Why are people who are unemployed getting $600 extra from the government for COVID-19, while essential workers are receiving no hazard pay for working through the pandemic? According to an article on abc7.com, "Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills to protect essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. SB 1159 will make it easier for workers who test positive to have access to medical care and wage replacement benefits. AB 685 forces employers to be more transparent when someone tests positive for COVID-19 in the workplace, requiring them to report potentially exposed employees within one business day." (Haskell, 2020) While it is great that Newsom is making an effort to help essential workers, why has the government not made it mandatory to provide essential workers with hazard pay? I know it has been considered but why are employers having to pay this? The federal government offered extra pay to unemployed workers and they should do the same for essential workers in my opinion.

Throughout the Pandemic

As someone who has been working through this entire pandemic, I have seen many different phases. You see, I live in California which has been shut down most of the pandemic. When COVID-19 started, the streets were dead and our shop had very little to no customers. Twentynine Palms, California has never been so dead as it was during that first month. The community slowly started coming out again. It was a month or two before we started seeing traffic pick up again. After President Trump provided hope of a possible opening, more people started to come out. When they quickly shut it down again, it seemed as though people were rebelling from the shutdown because the streets remained the same and the auto shop started to pick up again. I truly think that with every day more people were getting stir crazy and couldn't stand being cooped up in their homes. Each day, we would meet different types of customers that came in. Some were absolutely terrified of the virus and others did not have a care in the world and acted as if everything was normal.

Personally, I really didn't know what to think of the pandemic when it first started. All I knew is, now I was a part of history that the next generation will see in their history books. While my family got paid twice as much money as I do to sit at home, I went to work and handled daily customers. I used ropes to create a fortress around the front desk to keep people six feet away at all times. It felt weird to be so far away from a person but this was new normal I was coming to know.

One thing that has been difficult for me personally has been not being able to go out in public and do things like: going to the movies, bowling, hanging out in large groups of friends, etc. I am an extrovert and not being able see friends and go on dates with my husband takes its toll on me. Is the COVID-19 pandemic bigger than me? Yes, it is. Does that change the way I feel? No, it does not. Does anyone else feel this way? Do you think we will ever get back to normal again?

Final Thoughts

I really do hope that the world goes back to normal some day and our economy is able to recover. It would be nice if the government would actually make COVID-19 hazard pay for essential workers mandatory. In my opinion, making minimum wage go up by a dollar is also not really hazard pay. They were already considering doing that before the outbreak happened. In the end, who really knows what direction COVID-19 will take next. What's next 2020?

References:

Haskell, Josh. “Gov. Newsom Signs Bills to Protect Essential Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic.” ABC7 Los Angeles, KABC-TV, 18 Sept. 2020, abc7.com/gov-gavin-newsom-essential-workers-covid-19-coronavirus/6431659/.

N/A, N/A. Unemployment Insurance Relief During COVID-19 Outbreak, U.S Department of Labor, 2020, www.dol.gov/coronavirus/unemployment-insurance.