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Consumer and Community Impacts of Hazard Pay Mandates Closing even one supermarket in many neighborhoods would result in residents having to commute significantly farther to find fresh and healthy food at reasonable prices. Tulane University studied the impact of food deserts and concluded that while the majority of items at smaller stores are priced higher than at supermarkets, price is a consideration in deciding where to purchase staple foods, and transportation from a food desert to a supermarket ranges from $5 to $7 per trip.18 Thus, mandating hazard pay would likely impose significant hardships on some communities, especially in lower -income areas. The loss of a grocery store means both fewer jobs for members of the community and higher costs for all residents in the community, who must pay higher local prices or incur additional time and expense to shop. Conclusion Hazard pay initiatives like those passed in the City of Long Beach, and proposed in the City of Los Angeles and in other local jurisdictions, would have far-reaching and negative consequences for businesses, employees and customers of grocery stores in the jurisdictions where levied. They would impose an up-to-28 percent increase in labor costs on an industry that is labor-intensive and operates on very thin profit margins. The increases would be more than double the average profit margins for the grocery industry in 2020, and triple the margins occurring in normal years, and thus would inevitably result in either retail price increases or major employment cutbacks by grocery stores, or a combination of both. If the increased costs were passed forward to consumers, a typical family of four in California would face increased food costs of $400 per year. This would intensify financial pressures already being felt by millions of low- and moderate -income families, many of whom are already cutting back on basic necessities like food due to COVID-19-related losses in jobs and income. Establishments not able to recoup the costs by raising prices would be forced to reduce store hours and associated jobs and hours worked by employees. For a significant number of stores that are already struggling, the only option may be to shutter the store. This would be a 'lose -lose' for the community. It would mean fewer jobs with benefits, less local access to reasonably -priced food, and more time and expense spent by customers that would have to travel greater distance to find grocery shopping alternatives. ie "Food Deserts in America (Intographic)," Tulane University, School of Social Work May 10, 2018. https://socialwork.tulane.edu/blog/food-deserts-in-america 11