FREMONT, Neb. (KMTV) — A census worker in Fremont said she was stiffed out of money from the government — a bonus worth hundreds of dollars for completing her work in a timely manner. Now, she's considering taking legal action.
2020 census workers were out in force this year, collecting data as they went door-to-door. For doing so, they were paid around $17.50 an hour. For those who worked harder, a bonus was possible according to the fact sheets provided to them. But there are complaints by some that the bonus never came.
“It seemed like nobody else would listen to me,” said poll work Brandi Fipps.
Fipps said she expected to get a $500 dollar bonus by reaching certain criteria.
“You had to reach a certain amount of cases per hour and you had to work for that duration, every week in order to get the $500,” she said. “You had to work 25 hours or more...which would be $100 dollars a week but you had to do that for the whole three weeks to get that whole 500, which is what I did.”
She said nothing said otherwise in her paperwork, so she fully expected the bonus, money she was desperately relying on.
Related: Government struggling to find 2020 U.S. census workers in Nebraska
“Once I found out about that bonus...once this is done...I'll have this amount of money to keep me going until I can find something,” she said.
We reached out to U.S. Census Bureau for comment. It said, "The Census Bureau does not comment on personnel matters. All former census takers should contact their regional census center.”
“They just kept giving us the run-around...wouldn't really give us any information,” she said. “When I spoke to the Dallas office, they would not even answer any questions.”
Fipps said she did the work and followed the requirements and demands for the bonus and might take legal action to get it.
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