Minneapolis Partner Discusses Hero Pay Laws

In an interview with SHRM, Barbara Jean D'Aquila shares her insights on “hero pay,” which provides frontline workers who were on the job during the height of the pandemic with bonus payments. She explains that "[h]ero-pay laws are generally enacted to provide financial remuneration to front-line-sector workers because the governmental bodies enacting them recognize the importance of the work provided by such workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when COVID-19 was a new experience for the country and businesses were scrambling to help provide critical products and services.” Barbara goes on to highlight how states have certain eligibility requirements, and she notes that “[i]n Minnesota, the law covered only employees and not independent contractors, and even front-line sector employees were not eligible unless they worked at least 120 hours during the requisite time period or had earnings below the pay limits.”

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