Mitt Romney sides with Democrats calling for $12 hourly raises for essential workers


Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has followed demands of pay raises for essential workers with a proposal of his own.
Romney proposed Friday that essential workers "who are necessarily subject to greater risk of COVID-19" receive hourly bonuses of up to $12 in the form of a tax credit. His proposal comes a month after several Democratic senators suggested $13/hour raises for essential workers that would be retroactive from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Employers would have to opt in to what Romney is calling "Patriot Pay" and start paying workers a bonus for the government funding to activate. The federal government would triple what the employer offers and add it to the worker's paycheck as an additional bonus, up to a total of $12; For example grocery workers getting a $3/hour bonus from worker would get an extra $9/hour from the government.
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Workers would have to collect the payments by submitting a claim to the IRS; Romney did suggest the IRS partner with payroll companies to distribute the money faster. Those bonuses start phasing out if a person makes $50,000 annually, and end entirely at $90,000. Payments also would only start in May and last through July.
Senate Democrats proposed a COVID-19 "heroes fund" in early April that was a bit simpler than Romney's Patriot Pay. It would extend a "$25,000 premium pay increase for essential workers, equivalent to a raise of $13 per hour from the start of the public health emergency" through the end of the year. It would also offer a $15,000 essential worker recruitment incentive to hire and maintain health care workers.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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