Since mid-March, Giant Food has offered its store employees a 10% bump in weekly pay in recognition of their work on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite calls from the union representing Giant employees in the D.C. region, that pay bump—commonly referred to as hazard pay or hero pay—will expire on Saturday, as D.C. and its surrounding jurisdictions begin entering the first phases of reopening.

“At one time, we were one of the only businesses open,” said Giant Food spokesperson said over email. “As this is changing and we anticipate our shoppers will return to their new normal, we are now transitioning to our new normal.”

Bill Osborn, who has worked in Giant Food stores in the region for 37 years, says he feels he is far from a “new normal.”

“A new normal will be when … I’m allowed to return to my gym, when my female friends are allowed to get their nails done,” said Osborn. “If we’re not there yet, it’s still a hazard out there.”

As stay-at-home orders were announced in the region and nonessential businesses were ordered to close, the work of running grocery stores became particularly grueling as customers rushed to stock up on food and supplies. And as many in the region lost work or worked from home, employees of grocery stores have continued to report to work, in some cases at great personal risk.

A Giant spokesperson says the company has confirmed that one of its employees in the area has died from COVID-19: Leilani Jordan, who worked part-time at a Giant in Largo. Jordan’s mother told the Washington Post that she “only stopped going to work when she could no longer breathe.”

UFCW Local 400, which represents 10,000 grocery workers at Giant, Safeway, Kroger’s and Shoppers in the D.C. region, says four Giant employees have died from the virus. Jonathan Williams, the union’s spokesperson, says they count a COVID-19 death “if someone tested positive and a short time later they died,” rather than official cause of death. 

The union estimates that 208 members who work at regional grocery stores are currently sick with COVID-19. (The union says it comes up with that number by using reports from the companies and contacting people who don’t come in to work to see if they have tested positive or been diagnosed with the virus by their doctor.)

To recognize their employees’ work during the pandemic, several grocery chains in the region have offered enhanced pay and benefits. Giant previously extended its pay bump, initially set to expire on May 2, to May 30. After the wage increases expire on Saturday, the company will pay one-time bonuses of $400 dollars for full-time employees and $200 dollars for part-time employees on June 1. The company also says it has contributed $500,000 dollars to a fund intended to support the families of employees in need.

Temporary pay increases have already ended at Kroger (which owns Harris Teeter, among other grocers) and they are due to end tomorrow at Amazon warehouses. Others, like Wal-mart, never offered hourly increases, instead giving out one-time bonuses. 

Safeway, whose employees are members of the same union as Giant employees, will keep its $2 dollar-per-hour pay bump in effect until June 13. “Safeway has not announced plans to cancel the temporary appreciation pay increase,” wrote spokesperson Beth Goldberg in an email to DCist/WAMU. Target has extended its $2 an hour increase until July 4. Trader Joe’s has not announced an end date for its $2 hourly increase.

The crush of store customers with large orders in March led to large increases in sales for grocery companies—but that spike in revenue has started to come down. The trade publication Food Trade News reported in mid-May that retailers were looking for ways to manage costs as their sales continue to decline back towards pre-pandemic levels. Investments in personal protective equipment and new cleaning protocols have raised operating costs, but the companies say their largest expenses are the extra wages they’re providing to their employees.

“Maintaining that level of compensation over the long-term is unsustainable, especially when sales continue to flatten even further,” one unnamed Maryland-based retailer told the outlet.

Osborn says he thinks it would be fair if Giant were to phase out its pay increases by the time the region moves into later phases of reopening, when restaurants are operating at full capacity and fewer customers are buying groceries in bulk the way they are now. But until then, he feels there still needs to be “something for the employees to make them feel that this is worth it.”

Osborn says as the weather gets warmer, wearing a mask all day at work has gotten more difficult — and it serves as a reminder that the virus is still circulating in the community. “We wouldn’t be wearing these masks if there weren’t a hazard,” he says.

And, Osborn added, it’s impossible to know for sure that the worst is over.

“We don’t know if there’s going to be a second wave or another surge where they go, ‘Oh boy, the cases are rising again.’”