Senator Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake), a member of the Frontline Workers Bonus Pay Working Group, and other Republicans proposed their plan to provide meaningful bonuses to those who took the most risk to keep people safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“In this working group, our goal was to hear from everybody and prioritize those who took the most risk,” said Kiffmeyer. “Every Minnesotan, who did not have the ability to work from home, took risks while staying employed in an extremely difficult and taxing COVID high-risk situation. Before the vaccines were available, direct care employees assisted COVID patients day-in and day-out. Every job is important and valuable to our communities, but we have to look at the level of face-to-face risks to determine the best use for these bonuses.”

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. 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.  

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 direct risks of each profession and what amount of bonus pay would be impactful to the recipients.