essential workers

The state of Connecticut is looking to help ease the financial burden of essential workers and their families who contracted COVID-19 on the job.

They worked through the pandemic bagging our groceries, driving our buses, and taking care of our health. Now the state wants to compensate these essential workers or their families for any COVID-related expenses. The state set aside $34 million for essential workers who contracted or died from COVID-19. Many of these workers were on the job through the pandemic before…

Under a new rule from the Department of Labor, tipped workers who spend more than 20% of their time on non-tipped work (like cleaning or rolling silverware) are owed a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, instead of the $2.13 allowed for tipped workers. David Cooper of the Economic Analysis and Research Network explains and shares some interesting history of...

The fast food chain is serving up free breakfast Happy Meals starting Monday.

Meet Bella the robot. She’s about 4 feet tall, always has a smile on her face, and can hold a bunch of trays of food as she wheels across a restaurant to tables. With many workers leaving the restaurant industry, some restaurants are turning to nonhuman help to keep serving customers. LX News Host Nik Z traveled to McKinney, Texas...

About one-third of the states have used federal coronavirus relief aid to provide extra pay to workers who were considered essential during the coronavirus pandemic.

Being an enforcer of mask mandates on top of the stress of being “essential” has led to many retail workers quitting after a tough, busy year, says Julia Pollak, labor economist at ZipRecruiter.

Comedian Scott Seiss makes TikTok videos posing as a retail worker dealing with bad customers. His videos have gotten millions of views and likes, catching on with people who’ve witnessed or been in that situation.

The customer is not always right. Sometimes, they’re a dramatic mess who the workers are going to remember for a long time.

Medical professionals tell NBC Connecticut Investigates they are subjected to violence while at work.

NBC Connecticut is shining a light on some of the other critical workforces that have persevered in order to keep Connecticut moving during these difficult times.

Throughout the pandemic, there has been much-deserved praise for frontline essential workers in health care, education, law enforcement and more. NBC Connecticut is shining a light on some of the other critical workforces that have persevered in order to keep Connecticut moving during these difficult times. Kelli Madigan, assistant customer service manager at Big Y supermarket in West Hartford, said…

The news that COVID-19 took a far greater toll on New York nursing homes than previously reported highlights just how vulnerable these institutions are. Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, joined LX News to explain how the pandemic has highlighted a system that is already malfunctioning due to insufficient staffing.

Despite the hardships and health risks essential workers are facing in the pandemic, many profitable companies are still not paying them a living wage. Molly Kinder of the Brookings Institution joined LX News to discuss why companies, and particularly the retailers that have thrived during the pandemic, should be offering hazard pay to workers risking their health and the health...

The pandemic has highlighted how many people in America are living close to the financial edge. For years, working one full-time job has not been enough for many minimum wage workers to get by. Should a full-time job in America guarantee a living wage? NBCLX storyteller Cody Broadway explores how the system is working against our essential workers.

Some of Amazon’s 500,000 warehouse workers are attempting to fill the information gap by compiling data on outbreaks at facilities across the U.S.