Pandemic devastates middle class of restaurant industry
In September when he was hired as a cook at Chicago’s Fulton Market Kitchen, Jeff Danaher asked the chef about his plans for the winter.
“He was like, ‘I’m open four days a week, and I’m trying to go to seven,’ ” recalled Danaher, who had been out of work for months. “It was a huge relief.”
But five weeks later, indoor dining in the city came to a halt. Danaher, who made nearly $50,000per year before the pandemic and had his pick of positions in recent years, was jobless again.
“After about the second or thirdweek intoCOVID,” he said, “I got scaredformy job security in a way that I neverhadbefore in10years of cooking.”
In sheer economic terms, few workers have stood more directly in the path of the pandemic than the roughly 10 million people employed by restaurants at the start of the year. The industry shed close to half those jobs in March and
April, and was still down almost 1.5 million as of October.
The winter will likely bring another roundof pain: In recent weeks, reservations have dropped substantially in cold-weather states like Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, according to data fromOpenTable.
The crisis has forced many of the industry’s working poor to choose between financial ruin and harrowing work conditions. But more so than many other professions, the pandemic has also devastated the industry’s middle class: the thousands of cooks, chefs and servers who can make $35,000 to $85,000 per year in food hubs likeChicago.
ForDanaher, 29, the trouble started in earlyMarch, when he left his job as a sous-chef at a higher-end casual restaurant inChicago over concerns about drug use and harassment among thewait staff.
Soon after, the state suspended on-site dining.
Danaher tried to file for unemployment, but the website was overloaded and the phone lines were jammed.
By mid-April, Danaher was inquiring at pizza joints and even aDunkin’, but got no takers.
Around the same time, the industry was staggering back to life.
By July, the enhanced unemployment benefits, which Danaher started receiving only inMay, were about to expire, and his financeswere looking grim.
He came down with COVID the next month, though his symptomswere mild.
In late September, Danaher finally landed with FultonMarket Kitchen. He started at $16 per hour. But with infection rates soaring, Illinois ended indoor dining in Chicago before theendof October.
The restaurant closed and the staffwas laid off
Not long after, however, Danaher caught a break: A restaurant called Split-Rail asked if he could pick up two shifts perweek.
Danaher has now been guaranteed four shifts per week through the end of the year. “I’m incredibly grateful,” he said. “It is enough, but it’s just enough.”