According to a "PBS NewsHour" February 13, 2021 broadcast, during the pandemic, Kroger provided their essential workers a "hazard pay"—that the company called a "hero pay"—in the form of US$2 dollars an hour raise from the end of March 2020, until mid-May, 2020, when the "hero pay" ended. In January, 2021 the Long Beach City Council in California, passed an ordinance making it mandatory for some large grocery stores—like Kroger—to provide their essential workers hazard pay of US$4 dollars and hour "effective immediately for 120 days." The ordinance affected "companies with more than 300 workers nationwide and more than 15 employees per store." Seattle and Washington passed similar ordinances. In response, in early February, Kroger announced the "closure and permanent termination of the "entirety of the operations" of some of their stores April 2021—which includes a Ralphs and a Food4Less in Long Beach—"for economic reasons including the economic cost mandated by the Long Beach ordinance requiring an increase in employee wages, four dollars an hour." The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), with members whose jobs have been terminated, "view the closures as a warning to other cities considering hazard pay mandates." Andrea Zinder, president of the UFCW Local 324 that represents employees at the two stores—Ralphs and a Food4Less—said that compared to the same time period in 2019 both stores saw an increase of about 30% in sales. In 2020, during the pandemic, Kroger's earnings increased by 87.7%. Kroger's quarterly revenues as reported by November 20, 2020 were US$29.72 billion, and the corporation's per-share earnings and dividends grew at a rapid rate in 2020. Its dividend increase was about 14% annually.