Bonus Pay For Essential Workers Varied Widely Across States – WBEZ (Chicago)

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration provided a temporary 12% pay boost last year to nearly 24,000 state workers whose jobs put them at risk of contracting COVID-19. Most of the $62 million cost was covered with federal funds. “Morale-wise, that was a critical thing for my co-workers and I,” said Crosby Smith, a care provider at a state home for the developmentally disabled near Chicago. “Because at that time, when COVID hit our facility … we felt kind of abandoned.”