I was working at a statewide grocery store chain similar to Safeway or Albertson’s from November 2018 to May 2021. In 2020 when covid first happened, what they gave us in lieu of hazard pay for being essential workers was an $100 gift card each month for the store, which they then would tax us out of one of our paychecks for, in addition to the money they were getting back with the gift cards and the tax write offs for them. They didn’t tell us we were being taxed the full amount of them out of our paycheck, I had to use a third party pay stub website to look at one of my paystubs for unrelated reasons, (the only options they had for receiving wages was either a company card or direct deposit, and I had direct deposit) printed it out and asked my manager about it before I found out. We also couldn’t refuse them because they would wait to hand them out to us until we were with a customer and make a big show of bestowing it upon us like some grand gesture, usually followed by the customer saying something like “wow! You’re so lucky to work here!” So I would have to have $100 more taken from me every month after they cut my hours because of covid and I would have to thank them, inwardly seething with rage and tears in my eyes, or get in trouble. They were really shitty for a lot of reasons, (none of our heavy machinery/industrial slicers/fryers/ovens being up to code and really dangerous, combining job positions and making one person fill them, “promoting” people without pay raises and just adding to their workload, setting impossible deadlines for the amount of work one person was scheduled to do then getting in trouble for overtime, not taking action about any sexual harassment/assault from employees or customers including several of my own complaints, getting in trouble for bathroom breaks when I have a bladder disease, etc) but that was definitely the worst. Walking out mid-shift was one of the best decisions I ever made.