Member-only story
Why I Don’t Care if Minimum Wage Workers Never Return to Work
To say that COVID-19 changed the world is an understatement. It will always be known as a world-changing moment in history. Between lockdowns, death tolls, and lack of knowledge of what exactly the virus was, it was a pretty scary time. It still is. I remember the beginning of COVID in 2020. There was the belief that the world needed to lockdown. Many Americans began to work from home as companies felt it was safer, and that workers did not need to come into their place of employment to do their job effectively.
The exception was essential workers. These included grocery store workers, restaurant and fast food workers, childcare providers, first responders, sanitation workers, and transportation workers. Suddenly, workers who had been previously disregarded and disrespected, were now hailed as heroes as Americans expressed their gratitude to them for keeping the country running, as if they hadn’t always. How many times had I heard people speak of these professions disparagingly or witnessed customers take out their life frustrations on the poor cashier who was just doing their job? Naturally, this love affair didn’t last long. Most frontline workers risking their lives did not receive hazard pay for long, if at all, and America moved on to something else.
