in keeping with the Chipotle articles, I’ll re-up a couple of the ones on what restaurant workers are going through. for example, the director of One Fair Wage said this to me back in October! https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/tipped-restaurant-workers-waiters-coronavirus-subminimum-wage">https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/t...

why don’t these workers want to return to restaurants? see what they say that work has been like during the pandemic https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/restaurant-workers-covid-coronavirus-food-service/">https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/r...

in a survey of restaurant workers, 83% say their tips are down and 66% say their tips are down by more than 50%. 41% say sexual harassment is up, and 25% say it is up significantly. add in the risk of contracting Covid and you have a big part of the story

I’d also add that some of them got to enjoy free time and they don’t want to return to 60-hour weeks. for instance, I reviewed a movie one made after he quit his job in response to his suspicion that the restaurant’s owners concealed a Covid outbreak https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/one-long-shift-in-the-weeds-documentary-pittsburgh-restaurant-workers">https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/o...

in the documentary, person after person speaks to how revelatory it was not to have to work 10- or 12-hour days. they could finally write, hike, travel, and make movies

I only spell this out because I see articles about white-collar workers making big life changes, and while I’m sure some of them are, it’s my friends with the lowest-paying jobs who have left them for good. several have completely changed their lives over the past year