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Hazard pay during COVID
Jan 13, 2021

Hazard pay during COVID

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Plus, a name for Biden's pick to oversee the SEC, investors and the stock market. Also, if the markets aren't paying attention to Washington, what are they watching? And, the latest on China's use of surveillance technology in its campaign against Uighurs.

Segments From this episode

Biden will pick Gary Gensler to head the SEC, sources say

His appointment as the country’s top securities regulator is expected to put an end to the four years of rule-easing that Wall Street banks, brokers, funds and public companies have enjoyed under President Donald Trump’s SEC chair Jay Clayton. Marketplace’s Nancy Marshall-Genzer has more.

Stock market investors are showing they just don't care about politics. They're looking at government support for the economy going forward.

We’ll have more from President-elect Joe Biden tomorrow on his economic plans. “The market will pay attention to that. They want to understand how the government is going to support the economy going forward,” said Susan Schmidt, head of U.S. equities at Aviva Investors. Then there’s the upward movement this week for the benchmark interest rate, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. Schmidt says she doesn’t expect this will lead to the Federal Reserve raising rates over worries of inflation. She says the Fed board of governors has been very vocal about continuing to support the economy.

There's a push to mandate hazard pay at the local level

Jan 13, 2021
With COVID-19 spreading out of control, it's never been riskier for front-line workers.
Cashier Olga Jiminez, clad in mask and gloves, at work at Presidente Supermarket in Miami in April. Many companies that provided hazard pay early in the pandemic eventually phased it out.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Music from the episode

Daydream Mothlight

The team

Victoria Craig Host, BBC
Stephen Ryan Senior Producer, BBC
Jonathan Frewin Producer, BBC
Daniel Shin Producer
Jay Siebold Technical Director
Meredith Garretson Morbey Senior Producer
Alex Schroeder Producer
Erika Soderstrom Producer
Rose Conlon Producer
Brian Allison Technical Director