Brown Joins Brookings Institute Panel as He Continues Fighting for Essential Workers to Receive Hazard Pay, Other Support

Brown has been a Leader in the Senate Fighting for Essential Workers

Recording from the Panel Discussion Is Available Here

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined The Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program for a virtual panel discussion examining the need for frontline essential workers to receive hazard pay and other support. The panel was moderated by Brookings Institute Fellow Molly Kinder, who recently published several reports on workers during the pandemic, including her most recent report, “Why Essential Workers Need a Raise.”

 “Our economy is supposed to reward people whose talents are in high demand. These workers’ skills are keeping our economy going and their paychecks should reflect that,” said Brown. “These workers often weren’t paid nearly enough to begin with, and many of them don’t have paid sick days – if they get coronavirus, they face the choice between going to work and risking infecting their coworkers and customers, or going without the paycheck they need to pay their rent.”

Brown has been fighting to put assistance directly in the pockets of workers, expand Unemployment Insurance, provide the resources and personal protective equipment (PPE) our frontline health care workers need, and more.

In August, Brown penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling on corporations who claim to support workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic to back up their words with action.

In April, Brown released a plan to keep Ohioans safe, protect workers and reopen the economy safely and wrote to President Trump calling on the Administration to increase testing capacity, facilitate intensive contact tracing, enact enforceable worker safety protections, and support effective isolation and quarantine methods.