An OPEN LETTER to Employers of Essential Workers …

You know it now, don’t you?

You know your paycheck wouldn’t be possible without the grunts. The people you barely pay. The men and women without health benefits because you choose to utilize every loophole possible so you don’t have to provide anything more than a buck or two above minimum wage (if that).

But you know it now, don’t you?

You now are well aware of the differences in the definitions between “grunt” and “essential.”

But …

What remains to be seen is if such a realization will make a difference in the future. Will those raises stick? Will others receive more, too? Some companies have reacted by implementing wage increases for some grocery cashiers, many in the medical field, and a few at gas stations and truck stops, but how the “essential” are valued by you in the future is going dictate motivation within a young workforce that already despises regular schedules, shift work, and insulting compensation.

Whatever the new normal is going to matter. Critical and respectful decisions are going to matter.

Sincerely,

The Grunts

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Steve Novotney
Steve Novotney has been a professional journalist for 33 years, working in print for weekly, daily, and bi-weekly publications, writing for a number of regional and national magazines, host baseball-related talks shows on Pittsburgh’s ESPN, and as a daily, all-topics talk show host in the Wheeling and Steubenville markets since 2004. Novotney is the co-owner, editor, and co-publisher of LEDE News, and is the host of “Novotney Now,” a daily program that airs Monday-Friday from 3-6 p.m. on River Talk 100.1 & 100.9 FM.