Essential workers could be getting an increase in their paychecks under legislation introduced in the state Senate recently.

Sen. Andrew Gounardes, D-Brooklyn, has introduced S.8955, which would direct the state labor commissioner to tell employers to make hazard payments to essential workers during a state disaster emergency. The payments will be a percentage or a fixed dollar amount and not be more than $25,000 in any year for any essential worker earning less than $200,000 a year or $5,000 for any essential worker earning more than $200,000.

“During an unprecedented pandemic or state of emergency, many essential workers continue to go to work exposing themselves to high-risk conditions without appropriate protective equipment, adequate safety standards, or basic job protections,” Gounardes wrote in his legislative justification. “This leaves them susceptible to contracting contagions and other dangers at a higher rate than the general public.”

Hazard payments would be in addition to and not be part of an essential worker’s basic annual salary, and would not affect any performance advancement payments, performance awards, longevity payments or other rights or benefits to which an essential worker may be entitled. A hazard payment shall be terminated upon the cessation of the state disaster emergency.

Essential employers include essential health care operations including research and laboratory services; essential infrastructure including utilities, telecommunication, airports and transportation infrastructure; essential retail including grocery stores and pharmacies; essential services including trash collection, mail, and shipping services; news media; banks and related financial institutions; providers of basic necessities to economically disadvantaged populations; construction; vendors of essential services necessary to maintain the safety, sanitation and essential operations of residences or other essential businesses; vendors that provide essential services or products, including logistics and technology support, child care and services needed to ensure the continuing operation of government agencies and provide for the health, safety and welfare of the public.

Hazard pay has been a topic of discussion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf created a hazard pay program with $50 million the state received from the federal CARES Act. According to Wolf’s office, the administration received more than 10,000 applications totaling nearly $900 million during the two week application window. Of those applications, more than 5,000 businesses requesting $300 million were eligible. Of those 5,000 eligible employers, 639 were awarded $50 million to support a $3 per hour increase in pay for 41,587 workers across seven eligible industries.

Vermont created a similar program, the Front-Line Employees Hazard Pay Grant PRogram, with $28 million in CARES Act funding. Eligible workers must make $25 per hour or less, log required hours working a job with an “elevated risk” and must have worked between March 13 and May 15, 2020. The hazard pay can be up to $2,000 per worker.

The HEROES Act, proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives as its second stimulus proposal, would allocate $200 billion for hazard pay. The hazard pay would be set aside in a “Heroes Fund” and provide an additional $13 per hour for essential frontline workers up to a maximum premium pay of $25,000 for workers earning less than $200,000 and a maximum of $5,000 for workers earning more than that through the end of the year. The hazard pay would be retroactive to Jan. 27, 2020.

The Heroes Fund also would provide a $15,000 recruitment incentive in the form of a sign-on bonus for first responders and health and home care workers who sign on to do essential work. It also would provide additional benefits, such as a lump sum of the hazard pay to relatives if an essential worker dies while working through the pandemic.

The Senate is unlikely to include hazard pay in its stimulus proposal.