Raley’s Offers New Pandemic Bonuses to Workers

The pandemic bonus round in food retail isn't over yet.

Raley’s will give “appreciation” awards to every employee who works for hourly wages in the company’s stores, pharmacies, production bakeries, warehouses and support centers. Full-time workers will get $500, while part-time employees will get $250.

“We are grateful for our team members and pleased to be able to give back even more,” said Keith Knopf, Raley’s president and CEO. “Their dedication is inspiring under normal circumstances and even more so during these difficult circumstances.”

These new bonuses comes just more than a month after the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million workers in grocery stores and other businesses, called on major supermarket chains such as The Kroger Co. to reinstate hazard pay following fresh spikes in the spread of the coronavirus. Prior to that, Kroger and Albertsons phased out their respective bonus programs, while Target has made good on a three-year-old promise to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that all bonus programs have disappeared. In late June, for example, Amazon said that it has committed more than $500 million toward employee rewards. At the same time, Lowe’s revealed a new round of bonuses for its hourly retail workers, noting that its pandemic pay, bonus and community efforts have totaled some $450 million.

H-E-B, meanwhile, said in late July that it would offer permanent “merit” pay increases for its workers as the food retailer’s pandemic bonus program ended.

Privately owned and family-operated Raley’s operates 127 stores under six banners: Raley’s, Bel Air Markets, Nob Hill Foods, Food Source, Raley's O-N-E Market and Market 5-ONE-5. The West Sacramento, California-based company is No. 59 on PG's 2020 PG 100 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.