Minnesota has passed a bill providing front-line worker bonus checks that are much deserved, and long overdue. This bill provides $500 million to roughly 667k eligible workers, each getting an estimated $750 if they meet the requirements. 

There’s a good size list of people who qualify, but per the Frontline Worker Pay program FAQs, #9 says “Does work as an independent contractor or sole proprietor qualify for Frontline Worker Pay?” And the answer is “No, the eligibility criteria include the requirement that the worker be “employed.” Independent contractors and sole proprietors are not employees.”

Now why is this important? Because that excludes the Instacart/Shipt shoppers, Doordasher's, Uber Eats, and other gig workers who were working hard delivering groceries, and delivering food to members of our community while they were at home on quarantine- whether they had covid, or were exposed, or were unable to leave because they were caring for others.

But for the “Identified frontline sectors” you have: “5. food service, including production, processing, preparation, sale and delivery;  “ so essentially, other people doing the same work, qualify for this bonus. But because they don’t have an employer, they don’t qualify. 

For Instacart shoppers I can tell you, especially for the first year of the pandemic. There was a never ending amount of deliveries. Stores like Costco tried to cater to us, to help us get more deliveries out daily. And shoppers were dodging forklifts and crawling between pallets that were right up against the coolers to find the items that the customer had ordered. Store inventories were so low, it made it more difficult then ever to try to find what the customer wanted, or to connect with them to find a potential replacement that might work for them. It was not an easy job by any means. 

There is no reason why these people, who provided such a necessary service during a time of great need, should be excluded. And that is why I am making this petition, so that these workers get the Frontline Worker bonus that they deserve, just like the rest of the Frontline workers who are also much deserving of it.