The topic of hazard pay for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely discussed over the past few years. But did a hazard pay bill actually get passed in Congress? Let’s take a look at the facts and what it could mean for essential workers.
The Heroes Act and Hazard Pay
In May 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, also known as the HEROES Act. This $3 trillion stimulus package included a provision for “pandemic premium pay” – essentially hazard pay bonuses for essential workers. Specifically, it allocated $200 billion for this pandemic premium pay.
The HEROES Act called for essential workers to receive an additional $13 per hour, up to a maximum of either $10,000 or $5,000 depending on their income. Workers making less than $200,000 per year would be eligible for up to $10,000 in hazard pay, while those making over $200,000 could receive up to $5,000. The pay would be retroactive back to January 27, 2020 and continue until 60 days after the pandemic is over.
So in short, yes – a hazard pay bill containing $200 billion in funding did pass the U.S. House of Representatives. However that does not mean it has been enacted into law.
The Bill Must Pass the Senate
While the HEROES Act passed the House, it still needed approval from the Senate before the President could sign it into law. And that approval never came.
The HEROES Act was essentially dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate at the time. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the bill a “liberal wishlist” and said it had “no chance of becoming law.” Senate Republicans opposed many components of the expansive $3 trillion package.
However, some Senate Republicans did voice support for providing hazard pay to frontline essential workers. Senator Mitt Romney introduced his own hazard pay proposal called the Patriot Pay Act, allocating $25 billion specifically for essential worker hazard pay. But despite bipartisan interest, a scaled-down compromise version of hazard pay never made it into final COVID relief legislation
Subsequent Hazard Pay Proposals
While the original HEROES Act hazard pay provision stalled in Congress, the idea did not completely die. In 2021, Democrats introduced new legislation called the Essential Pay for Essential Workers Act. This bill would have provided $190 billion in retroactive hazard pay grants to employers, equivalent to a $13 per hour raise for essential workers.
Once again, the hazard pay bill passed the House but failed to advance in the Senate. Opposition remained primarily from Republicans concerned about the large price tag.
Similar proposals have continued to be discussed, but federal hazard pay has not been enacted. As of late 2022, no nationwide pandemic hazard pay program for essential workers has become law.
State and Local Hazard Pay Efforts
With no federal action, some states and cities took matters into their own hands and implemented local hazard pay policies. These have been smaller programs targeted at specific groups of essential workers, such as grocery store employees or healthcare staff.
For example, Seattle mandated hazard pay for grocery workers, while states like Vermont and Maryland enacted grants and stipends for childcare providers and educators. However, many of these local laws faced legal challenges from business groups.
Ongoing Debate and Challenges
The lack of federal action on hazard pay has been a source of frustration for many essential workers who have risked their health during the pandemic. Labor groups argue these frontline workers deserve additional compensation for serving their communities under hazardous conditions.
However, proposals have stalled due to disagreements over funding sources, who qualifies as an essential worker, how long pay should extend, and implementation logistics Some economists have also questioned whether hazard pay is an efficient policy compared to other alternatives.
While hazard pay remains a popular idea in theory, the challenges of enacting a federal program have so far proven insurmountable. Whether some version of hazard pay could gain momentum in a future Congress remains to be seen. But for now, it seems this debate will continue without clear resolution on the national level. Essential workers seeking extra pandemic compensation will have to look to piecemeal state and local policies rather than a comprehensive federal response.
Frequency of Entities
HEROES Act: 6 times
hazard pay: 18 times
essential workers: 10 times
Senate: 5 times
Congress: 3 times
Mitch McConnell: 1 time
Patriot Pay Act: 1 time
What Was Left Out of the HEROES Act?
Plenty. By the time you get your stimulus check, one or two trillion dollars of Democratic pandemic relief will have been cut from the bill during negotiations with Republicans.
Don’t expect Republicans to suspend negative credit reporting or freeze debt collection, expand the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, or provide benefits for banks that service legal cannabis businesses.
The Democrats also left a lot out of the HEROES Act to start. Most notable were proposals for a $2,000 a month stimulus check into the distant future, or to guarantee workers’ wages up to $90,000 a year.
Those dreams got trimmed down to the reality of a one-time second stimulus check that it says here Democrats and Republicans will pass, with a few minor changes, so we can all move on to another question:
When do a get a third stimulus check?
Never, analysts say, at least in this pandemic. This is the last big coronavirus relief package.
At least until the next one!
Bill “No Pay” Fay has lived a meager financial existence his entire life. He started writing/bragging about it in 2012, helping birth Debt.org into existence as the site’s original “Frugal Man.” Prior to that, he spent more than 30 years covering the high finance world of college and professional sports for major publications, including the Associated Press, New York Times and Sports Illustrated. His interest in sports has waned some, but he is as passionate as ever about not reaching for his wallet.
Home > Blog > Details on the HEROES Act
What Is in the HEROES Act?
The HEROES Act is a massive, $3 trillion proposal, even more ambitious than the $2.2-trillion CARES Act.
The sweeping relief legislation promises a second stimulus check, debt relief, student loan forgiveness, hazard pay, six more months of COVID-19 unemployment, housing and food assistance, and nearly $1 trillion in aid for state and local governments so they can pay “vital workers like first responders, health workers, and teachers” who are at risk of losing their jobs due to budget shortfalls.
The HEROES Act also makes changes to the federal government’s new Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses. The plan currently requires small businesses to use 75% of the money for payroll expenses, or be forced to pay it back as a loan.
The new proposal eliminates the 75% requirement, so small businesses could use the money as they pleased. In a classic case of unintended consequences, many businesses found they couldn’t use the money on payroll. Their employees didn’t want to be put back on the payroll because they were making more from COVID-19 unemployment.
The HEROES Act includes a one-time stimulus check payment, similar to the CARES Act, of $1,200 per person up to $6,000 per household, but with several more generous features.
Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get a one-time $1,200 check. Couples earning up to $150,000 would be eligible for $2,400.
The HEROES Act pays $1,200 for each dependent (up to three dependents), more than double the CARES Act payment (which paid $500 per dependent), and allows adult dependents.
The first round of stimulus checks excluded adult dependents, which excluded many college students and immigrants. People without a Social Security number were excluded from the first round of checks. The HEROES Act says all you need is a taxpayer ID number. Republicans aren’t excited over that.
The HEROES Act sets aside $200 billion for hazard pay. Hazard pay would be:
- Given to a wide variety of “essential” workers, including doctors, nurses and other frontline medical personnel, police officers, firefighters, social workers, grocery clerks, postal workers, and childcare and cafeteria workers.
- A $13-an-hour raise paid until workers receive a total of $10,000 if their regular pay is less than $200,000 per year. Or up to $5,000 total if they make more than $200,000 a year.
- Paid for 60 days after the pandemic ends if the $10,000 or $5,000 totals aren’t reached first.
- Distributed by employers, who will apply to the government for hazard pay, add it to their workers’ paychecks, deduct payroll taxes from all hazard payments.
The HEROES Act would extend the unemployment benefits from the CARES Act, including the extra $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit, through January 31, 2021. If you’re already receiving Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), your payments could be extended to March 31, 2021.
Gig workers, independent contractors, part-time workers and the self-employed will also be able to take advantage of unemployment benefits through March 2021.
The CARES Act suspended interest and payments for most people with federal student loans through September 30, 2020. Interest will not accrue during that period. The HEROES Act extends that break for another, year through September 30, 2021, and expands it to all federal student loans, including Federal Perkins Loans and some other loans
But the legislation also cancels up to $10,000 for some federal and private loan holders. Democrats scaled this back from a proposed $30,000 in canceled student loan debt.
The HEROES Act also proposes direct emergency cash payments for financially struggling students, including international students, undocumented immigrant students, and DACA students.
Don’t expect Republicans to do cartwheels over any of it.
America’s 40-million-plus renters were overlooked by the CARES Act. Not so the HEROES Act, which provides approximately $100 billion for rental assistance.
Here’s how it would work: An existing nationwide grant rental assistance program would verify a tenant’s inability to pay rent and give vouchers to cover the cost of rent and utilities.
It would also extend the ban on evictions for nonpayment for a year following its enactment date.
The bill also provides $75 billion for a homeowner assistance fund intended to prevent mortgage defaults and property foreclosures.
It would amend the previous stimulus package so that borrowers of any “covered mortgage loan” (any secured by a mortgage or deed of trust on one-to-four unit dwelling) would be eligible for forbearance for up to a year if they affirm that the coronavirus has affected them financially.
Previously, only borrowers of federally backed mortgages were eligible for 12 months of forbearance. The legislation also provides a national foreclosure and eviction moratorium for one year, and extends benefits to mortgage servicers, who naturally struggle when the government says they can’t collect mortgage payments.
Don’t get your hopes up for some magic proposal that stops the debt collector in his tracks.
The HEROES Act includes a moratorium on debt collections during the pandemic and 120 days thereafter. Democrats realize this would all but destroy the debt collection business.
So, to make the whole idea more palatable to Republicans, Democrats, usually no fans of debt collectors, included long-term, low-cost loans for debt collectors to compensate them for being denied collecting their debts.
But there’s no way Republicans agree to a moratorium on debt collections, and no way Democrats agree to helping out debt collectors without a moratorium.
Silicon Valley and Signature bank collapses: what is moral hazard, and does anyone care?
FAQ
Should I be getting hazard pay?
How much is federal hazard pay?
Does OSHA require hazard pay?
How much is hazard pay in Florida?
How many versions of the hazard pay bill are there?
There is one version of the bill to provide hazard pay to frontline essential workers employed during the COVID–19 pandemic.
Who is the sponsor of the hazard pay bill?
To provide hazard pay to frontline essential workers employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill’s titles are written by its sponsor. Sponsor. Representative for New Jersey’s 2nd congressional district. Republican. This bill was introduced on September 22, 2020, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote.
Does the Heroes Act provide hazard pay funding for essential workers?
Nearly a week ago, the House passed The Heroes Act which provides $200 billion in hazard pay funding for essential workers, among many other things. Hazard pay questions are now flying in just as they did with the topic of the second stimulus check. Here are the facts on seven key areas for essential workers and hazard pay.
Who enacted the “hazard pay for essential workers act of 2020?
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. Short title; table of contents. (a) Short title .—This Act may be cited as the ‘Hazard Pay for Essential Workers Act of 2020’. (b) Table of contents .—The table of contents for this Act is as follows: Sec. 1.
Is hazard pay dead in the Senate?
Now that the House has passed hazard pay for essential workers, it is presenting the bill to the Senate, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging the Senate to take up the bill and begin negotiations immediately. 2. Is hazard pay dead on arrival in the Senate? Not necessarily.
Who needs to apply for hazard pay Grant funds?
Actually, employers are the ones who need to apply to receive hazard pay grant funds. If approved, they are then required to pay essential workers accordingly. After an employer becomes an “essential work employer,” it will be obligated to provide hazard pay (pandemic premium pay) to its essential workers.