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.  

“The Republican proposal is the only way to ensure that those who were most at risk during the pandemic receive real and meaningful relief for keeping us safe,” Senator Paul Gazelka (R-East Gull Lake) said. “We know countless folks made sacrifices and took on risks at work, but with limited funds to work with, we chose to prioritize our healthcare workers and first responders who had the greatest exposure to COVID positive patients.”

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, needed 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.   

Comprised of three Senators and six Representatives, the working group’s duty was to make a recommendation for the disbursement of $250 million federal dollars in direct financial support to frontline workers, including the crucial long-term care workers that served our state’s most vulnerable citizens during peak COVID stages. 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 impact the recipients.