According to new data on Kroger KR, -0.42 percent employees revealed as the epidemic continues to expose and intensify essential workers' financial and health concerns, many supermarket workers struggle to put food on the table even as they help feed their communities.
According to a report from the Economic Roundtable, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit research group, and Occidental College, 78 percent of workers at eight Kroger-owned grocery chains — including King Soopers, Ralphs, Food 4 Less, and City Market — believe they have "poor" or "very low" food security.
According to the survey, "food surrounds Kroger grocery workers every hour on the job," but "many workers cannot afford balanced and healthy eating."
The researchers said, "They run out of food before the end of the month, skip meals, and feel hungry at times." "Parents who have children report going hungry in order to provide food and other necessities for their children."
More than 10,200 Kroger employees in Washington's Puget Sound region, Colorado, and Southern California were questioned at the request of local United Food and Commercial Workers unions, and the researchers got comprehensive responses.
44% of respondents indicated they are unable to pay their rent, 36% are concerned about eviction, and 14% are experiencing or have experienced homelessness in the last year. Nine out of ten workers indicated that rises in food and rent costs had outpaced pay increases, and 67% said they didn't earn enough to cover basic monthly needs.
On the job, two-thirds of respondents said they were dealing with pandemic-related customer difficulties – a quarter said they were dealing with clients who threatened violence — and nearly six out of ten said their work schedules changed at least weekly, which harmed some workers with small children.
The news came as 8,400 unionized workers at Kroger's King Soopers stores in Denver went on strike this week, demanding a new contract that would provide greater pay and a safer workplace. For its part, Kroger described the strike as "reckless and self-serving."
Kroger did not respond to MarketWatch's request for comment on the Economic Roundtable report or the strike, but the company called the report's findings "misleading" on Wednesday as it released its own analysis of how its nearly 85,000 hourly workers in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington are paid.
The Kroger-commissioned report found, among other things, that these hourly workers received higher wages and benefits (an average of $18.27 per hour plus $5.61 per hour in healthcare and retirement benefits) than their retail-industry peers overall; that the company provided both monetary and non-monetary assistance to workers and their families; and that it had invested money and implemented policy changes to ensure worker safety during the pandemic. Visit this site greatpeople for more info about Kroger eschedule.
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