Plan prioritizes healthcare workers and first responders who willingly entered COVID situations and kept people safe during the pandemic.
ST. PAUL, MN – Today Republican members of the Frontline Workers Bonus Pay Working Group proposed their plan to provide meaningful bonuses to those who took the most risk to keep people safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve said from the beginning, these bonuses need to be an amount that is meaningful, prioritized for those who took the most risk, and recognizes the workers who kept us safe,” Senator Karin Housley (R – Stillwater) said. Housley serves as co-chair of the working group. “We only have $250 million to work with, but it’s enough to prioritize the healthcare workers who donned PPE and cared for COVID positive patients. It’s enough to recognize our first responders who doubled down on an already risky job when the work didn’t allow distancing or PPE. We can recognize the inspiring work of hospice staff who were there for our loved ones when we were not allowed to be.”
“We owe these frontline workers a huge debt of gratitude for their dedicated and tireless efforts to help keep Minnesotans safe during the most challenging stages of the pandemic,” said Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller (R-Winona). The Senate is ready to get this bonus pay into the pockets of these workers as quickly as possible when the Governor calls us back for a special session.”
The proposal includes $1200 in bonus pay for nurses, first responders, corrections officers, long-term care workers, and hospice providers. To be eligible, the workers couldn’t work from home, need to have received less than one month of unemployment, and worked a minimum of 1200 hours between March and December of 2020, about 30 hours a week. There is no income cap on the proposal and an application process will be used to provide bonus pay as soon as the application is approved.
“Minnesota’s long-term care workers, health care providers, and first responders were on the frontlines of the pandemic from the very beginning, putting themselves at risk when there was not adequate PPE and in situations where social distancing was impossible,” said Representative Anne Neu Brindley (R – North Branch), a member of the working group. “With only $250 million available, we must prioritize those who showed up to work every day knowing they were encountering positive COVID-19 patients. Long-term care and healthcare workers, as well as first responders, deserve meaningful bonuses to acknowledge the risks they took in order to serve their fellow Minnesotans.”
The working group met eight times and heard from dozens of testifiers across many professions affected by COVID. The working group discussed at length the merits of each profession and what amount of bonus pay would be impactful to the recipients.
“These brave individuals deserve meaningful recognition and appropriate compensation (though not a measure in any way of compensating them for all their work) and thanks for the risks taken, hours put in, and emotional hardships faced day in and day out,” said Senator Mary Kiffmeyer (R – Big Lake), who was on the working group. “These are our nurses, long-term care providers, personal care assistants, first responders plus others in healthcare but not including those who worked remotely or took unemployment for more than 30 days. These are folks who held the hands of COVID patients, answered emergency calls for help in homes, held grandma’s hand in her last days, moved in with their client, lived in a trailer outside their home to protect their families, and more. My support is for $1,200 for this group of incredible people.”