because the US does not give a shit about the people who live and work in the US.
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Not quite, a lot of money was allocated for "Hero Bonuses".
The problem came when the hospitals were put in charge of that money, most of them tried to disappear it until the government said either pay your employees, or you will be paying it back with interest.
In my experience, they decided that if you called in at all in 2020, that disqualified you from the bonus. Keep in mind this was the same hospital that was hoarding PPE, and wouldn't provide it until patients tested positive. Then as an ultimate fuck you to the nurses that actually worked the COVID units, they gave every employee in the system a bonus, whether or not they were furloughed at the time.
And they wonder why so many nurses quit...
That’s a bingo!
Because that would cost money. Which would
A. Cost the private healthcare company more money.
B. Set a precedent that during a crisis they should be paid more.
Neither of which a business wants.
We stood outside our house and clapped for them every Thursday! Wasn’t that good enough!?
/s
The classic, getting paid in exposure.
Capitalism. The people with the money aren't the people working. They don't care that much about the people working. The people working haven't organized enough for their demands to be met. There's always plenty of scabs willing to lick the boots for a few pennies more.
Nursing scabs? Don’t you need a degree for that?
They should be getting hazard pay every damn day of the year. Directly taxed from the boards ridiculous compensation packages, with a penalty tax for every attempt at evading 😎
Some of them did, but it was called travel nursing.
From what I could see, nurses were pushed to work in hazardous conditions as "heroes" and "essential". A cohort left because the risk/reward was bad in a situation where supply/demand was low, some then got huge pay bumps to be travel nurses. In short: capital interests exploited nurses willing to work for non-monetary compensation (e.g. clapping, their own sense of compassion, etc). The nurses willing to demand more pay generally got it
Why don't they get hazard pay every single day they have to deal with gnarly contagions?
Well, depends on the country.
Funnily enough here they did and EMS didn't.
Calling people heros is equivalent to a pizza party. Union power has waned to the point that comically evil business decisions will be made more and more until unions reestablish themselves. This was cartoonish, but will look like nothing by the standards of where we're going.
If you’re in the US it’s because the healthcare system is broken. Every time a small change is made to reduce costs or improve service, capitalism figures out a way to keep funneling the same amount or more uphill at the expense of the workers and the patients.
Why didn't I get hazard pay either?
Because too many Americans are so stupid and captured by capitalism they believe you’re stupid if you don’t have payroll insurance.
It would cost money. Better for you to be patriotic towards your health care system superiors.