Remember the concept of frontline workers? Corporate America certainly doesn’t.

We once hailed these workers as heroes for doing the hard, often drudgerous work that, it turned out, actually kept the world spinning while the rest of us sat at home — all while a deadly and debilitating virus floated through their workplaces. We promised that once it was all over, we wouldn’t just forget their sacrifice, and would make sure they were at least decently compensated.

That promise was squarely broken, we’re told by a new report from the Brookings Institution, which examines where the enormous profits accrued over the course of the pandemic actually went. According to the report, despite pledging even before the pandemic to pay their workers fairly, none of the twenty-two leading companies Brookings looked at pay their employees a living wage, they overwhelmingly funneled excess profits into stock buybacks and executive pay, and they let their workers bear the brunt of whatever financial difficulties they experienced.