LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On June 1, 2020, nearly three months after COVID shut down Louisville’s libraries, they reopened for curbside pickup. Jo Smiley and other library clerks were an essential part of that process.

“We were the ones delivering people's books, DVDs and library materials,” Smiley said. “We were wearing masks, but a lot of the people in their cars were not.”

What You Need To Know

  • Mayor Fischer has proposed putting $21 million toward premium pay for some city workers

  • Workers would get $5,000, $1,500, $500, or in some cases, nothing

  • Part-time workers are excluded from the payments

  • One library workers said the plan is unfair to those who have worked with the public for over a year

More than a year later, Louisville Metro government plans to reward city workers who “showed up and served their city with great distinction,” Mayor Greg Fischer said last week as he announced the city’s plan for premium pay. The plan would direct $21 million of Louisville’s American Rescue Plan funds to many city workers in payments ranging from a maximum of $5,000 to $500. But some city workers would be left out entirely.

Though it wasn’t in the city’s news release announcing the premium pay plans, an email to city employees provided to Spectrum News 1 said chiefs, directors or part-time employees would be excluded.

“I would receive no money,” said Smiley, who works part time. “No extra money.”

The email specified several groups who would qualify for the $5,000 payment, half of which is contingent on receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, or "authorized waiver." It includes “Public health workers, corrections officers, police, firefighters, EMTs, tippers, and some other employees who were unable to telework, worked directly with the public, and continued to perform their duties in the face of potential contraction of the COVID-19 virus,” the email said. 

The $1,500 payments will go “to those essential employees whose duties required them to report for work daily and meet face-to-face with their peers and the public, increasing their risk of infection in the name of providing city services to our residents.”

City workers who were able to work from home will receive a $500 payment.

Katherine Skaggs, the president of the library worker’s union, said she doesn’t know which category her members fall into. Both Mayor Fischer’s office and Metro Councilman Bill Hollander, the chair of the Budget Committee, referred questions on how workers will be categorized to the Louisville Metro Human Resources Department, which did not respond.

Both Skaggs and Smiley believe library workers deserve just as much as front line workers such as police and EMS. 

“I can tell you as a library worker, I have been meeting with the public daily,” Smiley said. “I've been working directly with the public. I've been continuing to perform my normal duties in the face of potential contraction of the COVID-19 virus.”

Skaggs said the exclusion of part-time workers was “outrageous.” 

“For them to not be included in the hazard pay when they've been shouldering as much risk as anybody else is not just,” she said. According to Skaggs, the majority of library workers who interact with the public work part-time. 

Mayor Fischer's spokesperson, Jessica Wethington, said excluding part-time workers was a recommendation of the working group that developed the plan for spending the ARP money. "Conversations are ongoing, and if modifications need to be made they can be," she wrote in an email. 

The city’s premium pay proposal is part of a $262.9 million package unveiled last week. The plan calls for spending $100 million of federal ARP funds on homelessness and affordable housing programs. Another $78 million would go to public safety, which Fischer called his “No. 1 priority” in last week’s press conference. 

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