‘If I made a couple more dollars an hour, I would be better off’
When Larisa Mednis’ bike was stolen, she couldn’t afford to buy a new one. Ms. Mednis, 23, of Bloomfield, was working as a server at a sushi restaurant at the time. Her income and the tips she got from diners was enough to cover her rent, her bills and her groceries — on most occasions — but she didn’t have money to spare for a new bike. That didn’t happen until the first federal stimulus check arrived.
“When you’re not earning a living wage, there’s just always something that ends up falling by the wayside,” Ms. Mednis said. “You cannot be paying for every expense that you have.”
Ms. Mednis started working in the restaurant industry as a college student wrapping burritos at Chipotle. At the time, she and her co-workers thought the $8-$9 per hour in compensation was significant because it was a few dollars above minimum wage. Over time, that excitement wore off.
She worked her way through the hierarchy of the restaurant industry and saw her wages increase while her stress level decreased.
“It just went from ‘Oh, I’m borrowing money from my family to make my bills’ to ‘Oh, I need to make sure I eat every staff meal at work this week before my paycheck comes in,’” Ms. Mednis said. “It became a little less desperate,
but there was always kind of that feeling that if I made a couple more dollars an hour, I would be better off.”
Some weeks were better than others; a lot of her paycheck depended on things she could not control, such as how many people came into the restaurant and what type of mood they were in when they did.
To prepare for the weeks when her paycheck came in lower than expected, she would be more frugal with her food budget and walk to work to save on bus fare.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Ms. Mednis said she was lucky to have just received her last paycheck, which got her through until the unemployment benefits arrived.
Now, she works as an advocate for the Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid group, an organization that provides resources to restaurant and hospitality workers, and brings in about $21 an hour before taxes. That’s allowed her to start putting something away for savings.
“I guess it’s not too complicated or unexpected to say,” Ms. Mednis said. “As I started earning more money, I started feeling a little more comfortable.”