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The final straw : Pandemic pushes restaurant workers over the edge
Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post
May 24, 2021
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1of3Jim Conway, 64, retired last year after almost 40 in restaurants, most recently in Olive Garden, outside of Pittsburgh.Photo for The Washington Post by Jeff SwensenShow MoreShow Less
2of3Jim Conway retired from the restaurant industry because of tips no longer being a reliable source of income and lingering health concerns about covid-19.Photo for The Washington Post by Jeff SwensenShow MoreShow Less
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Jim Conway started working in restaurants in 1982, making $2.13 an hour, plus tips.
And though the world has changed significantly in the nearly 40 years since then, his hourly wage has not. At the Olive Garden outside of Pittsburgh where he worked when the pandemic hit last year, he was making $2.83 an hour, the minimum wage for tipped workers in Pennsylvania, plus tips.
Business owners have politicians scrambling to fix a so-called ‘worker shortage’ plaguing restaurants and other low-wage industries. But workers in these fields tell a different story.
âThe final strawâ: Pandemic pushes restaurant workers over the edge
By The Washington Post
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Jim Conway started working in restaurants in 1982, making $2.13 (about R30) an hour, plus tips.
And though the world has changed significantly in the nearly 40 years since then, his hourly wage has not. At the Olive Garden outside of Pittsburgh where he worked when the pandemic hit last year, he was making $2.83 an hour, the minimum wage for tipped workers in Pennsylvania, plus tips.
So after being furloughed for months last spring, Conway, 64, decided to retire.
Being paid the rough equivalent of a chocolate bar an hour from the chain was little incentive for him to stick it out longer in the industry after so many years, especially with tips no longer a reliable source of income and lingering health concerns about covid-19.