vox--2020-03-24--How to make sure Congress can still function if its members are quarantined

On Sunday , Sen. Rand Paul ( R-KY ) announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19 , the coronavirus disease , and that he is being quarantined .
A day later , Sen. Amy Klobuchar ( D-MN ) announced that her husband , John Bessler , also tested positive .
At least two other senators , Utah Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Lee , are self-quarantining because they were recently in close proximity to Paul .
And at least two members of the House , Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart ( R-FL ) and Ben McAdams ( D-UT ) , have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the moment , this small number of infections is manageable .
But what happens if so many lawmakers are locked into a quarantine that they are unable to cast votes ?
What if a critical mass of lawmakers become so incapacitated that the House or the Senate lacks the quorum it needs to conduct business ?
What if members are so terrified of becoming sick that they refuse to convene in Washington ( as a general rule , members of Congress must be in the House or Senate chamber to vote ) ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ become unable to work , leaving vacant seats that can only be filled by a special election ?
These are not new questions .
Indeed , in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks , the American Enterprise Institute ( AEI ) and the Brookings Institution think tanks convened a Continuity of Government Commission to study how the United States could be better prepared for a situation where many key government officials are either killed or incapacitated .
Its first report , from May 2003 , offers a blueprint that Congress could follow to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ function even amid a pandemic .
Yet , while this report offers a well-considered list of potential reforms , its primary proposal is to allow vacant House seats and the seats of incapacitated members to be temporarily filled by appointments .
This proposal could prevent the coronavirus from emptying out Congress , but it also requires a constitutional amendment .
Such amendments are difficult to achieve even in ordinary circumstances and would likely be impossible in the midst of a crisis .
No amendment can be ratified without the approval of three-quarters of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ likely to struggle to act for the same reasons that Congress could become incapacitated .
“ We have to be concerned with triage right now , ” says AEI ’ s Norm Ornstein , one of the primary movers behind the Continuity of Government Commission , of the need to act immediately .
It ’ s almost certainly too late to put in place the best possible reforms .
Nevertheless , there are some reforms that Congress could enact now — such as remote voting and universal vote-by-mail — that could minimize the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perform essential functions should the worst happen and coronavirus keeps it from convening in Washington .
The constitutional process is not prepared for coronavirus Broadly speaking , there are two different ways the coronavirus could prevent Congress from functioning .
It could potentially kill or incapacitate enough members of Congress to prevent Congress from operating at all — although that outcome is very unlikely .
It ’ s more likely to prevent Congress from convening in Washington , as individuals members are quarantined or engage in social distancing .
A first point of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deaths among lawmakers ’ ranks .
The 17th Amendment permits the state governors to appoint temporary senators to fill vacancies in the US Senate , at least until an election can be held to fill the seat .
Although governors may only do so if they ’ ve been given that power by their state legislature , the overwhelming majority of states permit gubernatorial appointments to the Senate .
In the House , however , the picture is different .
The Constitution provides that “ when vacancies happen in the Representation from any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , then “ the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.
” There are no gubernatorial appointments to House vacancies , only special elections .
In normal times , there is a sense to this dichotomy .
Senators , like governors , are elected by their entire state .
So a state governor has some legitimacy to speak on behalf of the state as a whole if someone needs to be appointed to a vacant Senate seat .
House districts , by contrast , typically comprise only a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — and , indeed , individual House districts can have very different political leanings from the state they are located within .
There are Republican House members from California , and Democrats from Texas .
But in these very unusual times , the absence of a constitutional provision allowing vacant House seats to be filled quickly means that many parts of the country could go without representation if their House member dies .
A second point of failure arises if a lawmaker is still alive but incapacitated or otherwise prevented from doing their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawmaker would continue to occupy their seat , even though they would be unable to cast votes or perform their other official duties .
Our Constitution has no mechanism whatsoever to temporarily fill a seat that is held by an incapacitated member .
Congress could , theoretically , expel an incapacitated member by a two-thirds vote , but that would be an extraordinary act that would permanently remove that member from office .
Historically , when a member of Congress becomes incapacitated , that member ’ s constituents simply go without representation until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his death in 1946 , for example , Sen. Carter Glass ( D-VA ) remained in office despite the fact that he was too ill to attend Senate meetings .
He even held onto his roles as Senate appropriations chair and as president pro tempore of the Senate for most of this period .
Similarly , after Sen. Karl Mundt ( R-SD ) had a severe stroke in 1969 that left him unable to perform his duties , he was stripped of his committee slots but remained a senator until his term expired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Government Commission , the only historical example of a member of Congress being removed due to incapacity is Rep. Gladys Noon Spellman ( D-MD ) , who fell into a coma shortly before she was reelected in 1980 .
Though the House eventually passed a resolution declaring her seat vacant due to “ absence and continuing incapacity , ” Spellman was unusual in that her incapacity began before her term — so she was unable to be formally sworn in as a member of the House .
There is no precedent for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after they have taken the oath of office .
The 2003 Commission report warns of nightmare scenarios where a terrorist attack kills or incapacitates all but a handful of the members of one house , then speculates about whether a nine-member House could continue to lawfully conduct business .
Realistically , these nightmare scenarios are unlikely to result from coronavirus , which has an estimated mortality rate of 1 to 3.4 percent .
But Covid-19 could incapacitate enough members of Congress to raise a cloud of illegitimacy over the legislative process .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Senate to function at all .
Imagine , for example , that through sheer blind luck a large number of Democratic House members are incapacitated while Republicans remain largely unscathed .
That could potentially enable a coup , where Republicans replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with one of their own and push through legislation that could never pass a Democratic House .
In the Senate , meanwhile , current rules require a bloc of senators seeking to break a filibuster to produce 60 affirmative votes .
As Ornstein put it to me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s screwed ” in the Senate .
If the majority does not have 60 votes to proceed to legislation , obstructionist senators merely need only sit on their hands .
Finding 60 votes can be a difficult task in a 100-person Senate .
It would be an even more difficult task in an 80-person Senate if many members are incapacitated or otherwise unable to vote .
So what can be done ?
Though a constitutional amendment is almost certainly off the table — at least in the short term — there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now to preserve its ability to function .
One is a proposal by Sens .
Dick Durbin ( D-IL ) and Rob Portman ( R-OH ) , which would allow senators to cast votes remotely .
Under their proposal , the two party leaders could jointly authorize remote voting for a period of 30 days , and then the full Senate could vote to extend this period .
A similar rules change could be enacted in the House .
Such proposals would enable lawmakers to continue to cast votes even as they remain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they are quarantined .
But they will only be enacted if the Senate ’ s Republican leadership agrees to bring it up for a vote .
Ornstein also emphasized to me that Congress should take advantage of technology such as the teleconferencing software Zoom to conduct “ remote sessions ” where the public can still see legislation being deliberated and oversight hearings being held .
Congress does not want “ to be in a situation where you can ’ t do any oversight , ” Ornstein warned me , especially if it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus funds .
Congress should also enact legislation , such as a bill proposed by Sens .
Klobuchar and Ron Wyden ( D-OR ) , which would make it easier for Americans to vote by mail .
That wouldn ’ t just help secure the November election .
It would also ensure that voters can participate in any special elections that are called to fill House vacancies .
The Senate , meanwhile , could amend its filibuster rules to place the burden of maintaining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filibuster .
Thus , instead of requiring the majority to produce 60 affirmative votes to end a filibuster , the Senate could require the minority to produce 41 negative votes to maintain a filibuster .
Finally , Congress may want to consider enacting a continuing resolution or other appropriations legislation to ensure that the government remains funded — and that the debt ceiling is not breached — for as long as the coronavirus crisis is likely to last .
That way , if the worst happens and Congress truly becomes unable to function @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Many of these reforms will need to be enacted under suboptimal circumstances .
Members may struggle with the new technology they will need to use to conduct deliberations or to cast votes .
And Congress will need to ensure that its remote voting system is secure from hackers , even while many of the developers who would produce such a system are stuck working from home .
But the consequences of doing nothing are potentially much worse .
As the Commission report warned , “ in the event of a disaster that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filled by unilateral executive action — perhaps a benign form of martial law .
The country might get by , but at a terrible cost to our democratic institutions.
” Unless you are comfortable with giving that kind of power to Donald Trump , the only alternative is to ensure that Congress can function during a pandemic .

On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19, the coronavirus disease, and that he is being quarantined. A day later, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) announced that her husband, John Bessler, also tested positive. At least two other senators, Utah Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, are self-quarantining because they were recently in close proximity to Paul. And at least two members of the House, Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Ben McAdams (D-UT), have tested positive for the disease.
For the moment, this small number of infections is manageable. But what happens if so many lawmakers are locked into a quarantine that they are unable to cast votes? What if a critical mass of lawmakers become so incapacitated that the House or the Senate lacks the quorum it needs to conduct business? What if members are so terrified of becoming sick that they refuse to convene in Washington (as a general rule, members of Congress must be in the House or Senate chamber to vote)? What if many members of the House become unable to work, leaving vacant seats that can only be filled by a special election?
These are not new questions. Indeed, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Brookings Institution think tanks convened a Continuity of Government Commission to study how the United States could be better prepared for a situation where many key government officials are either killed or incapacitated. Its first report, from May 2003, offers a blueprint that Congress could follow to ensure that the legislative branch continues to function even amid a pandemic.
Yet, while this report offers a well-considered list of potential reforms, its primary proposal is to allow vacant House seats and the seats of incapacitated members to be temporarily filled by appointments. This proposal could prevent the coronavirus from emptying out Congress, but it also requires a constitutional amendment. Such amendments are difficult to achieve even in ordinary circumstances and would likely be impossible in the midst of a crisis. No amendment can be ratified without the approval of three-quarters of the states. And state legislatures are likely to struggle to act for the same reasons that Congress could become incapacitated.
“We have to be concerned with triage right now,” says AEI’s Norm Ornstein, one of the primary movers behind the Continuity of Government Commission, of the need to act immediately.
It’s almost certainly too late to put in place the best possible reforms. Nevertheless, there are some reforms that Congress could enact now — such as remote voting and universal vote-by-mail — that could minimize the risk that Congress will be unable to perform essential functions should the worst happen and coronavirus keeps it from convening in Washington.
The constitutional process is not prepared for coronavirus
Broadly speaking, there are two different ways the coronavirus could prevent Congress from functioning. It could potentially kill or incapacitate enough members of Congress to prevent Congress from operating at all — although that outcome is very unlikely. It’s more likely to prevent Congress from convening in Washington, as individuals members are quarantined or engage in social distancing.
A first point of failure would occur in the event of deaths among lawmakers’ ranks. The 17th Amendment permits the state governors to appoint temporary senators to fill vacancies in the US Senate, at least until an election can be held to fill the seat. Although governors may only do so if they’ve been given that power by their state legislature, the overwhelming majority of states permit gubernatorial appointments to the Senate.
In the House, however, the picture is different. The Constitution provides that “when vacancies happen in the Representation from any state” in the House of Representatives, then “the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.” There are no gubernatorial appointments to House vacancies, only special elections.
In normal times, there is a sense to this dichotomy. Senators, like governors, are elected by their entire state. So a state governor has some legitimacy to speak on behalf of the state as a whole if someone needs to be appointed to a vacant Senate seat. House districts, by contrast, typically comprise only a subset of the state as a whole — and, indeed, individual House districts can have very different political leanings from the state they are located within. There are Republican House members from California, and Democrats from Texas.
But in these very unusual times, the absence of a constitutional provision allowing vacant House seats to be filled quickly means that many parts of the country could go without representation if their House member dies.
A second point of failure arises if a lawmaker is still alive but incapacitated or otherwise prevented from doing their job. In that circumstance, the lawmaker would continue to occupy their seat, even though they would be unable to cast votes or perform their other official duties. Our Constitution has no mechanism whatsoever to temporarily fill a seat that is held by an incapacitated member. Congress could, theoretically, expel an incapacitated member by a two-thirds vote, but that would be an extraordinary act that would permanently remove that member from office.
Historically, when a member of Congress becomes incapacitated, that member’s constituents simply go without representation until the next election. From 1942 until his death in 1946, for example, Sen. Carter Glass (D-VA) remained in office despite the fact that he was too ill to attend Senate meetings. He even held onto his roles as Senate appropriations chair and as president pro tempore of the Senate for most of this period.
Similarly, after Sen. Karl Mundt (R-SD) had a severe stroke in 1969 that left him unable to perform his duties, he was stripped of his committee slots but remained a senator until his term expired in 1972.
According to the Continuity of Government Commission, the only historical example of a member of Congress being removed due to incapacity is Rep. Gladys Noon Spellman (D-MD), who fell into a coma shortly before she was reelected in 1980. Though the House eventually passed a resolution declaring her seat vacant due to “absence and continuing incapacity,” Spellman was unusual in that her incapacity began before her term — so she was unable to be formally sworn in as a member of the House.
There is no precedent for a member being removed due to incapacity after they have taken the oath of office.
The 2003 Commission report warns of nightmare scenarios where a terrorist attack kills or incapacitates all but a handful of the members of one house, then speculates about whether a nine-member House could continue to lawfully conduct business. Realistically, these nightmare scenarios are unlikely to result from coronavirus, which has an estimated mortality rate of 1 to 3.4 percent.
But Covid-19 could incapacitate enough members of Congress to raise a cloud of illegitimacy over the legislative process. And it could make it exceedingly difficult for the Senate to function at all.
Imagine, for example, that through sheer blind luck a large number of Democratic House members are incapacitated while Republicans remain largely unscathed. That could potentially enable a coup, where Republicans replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with one of their own and push through legislation that could never pass a Democratic House.
In the Senate, meanwhile, current rules require a bloc of senators seeking to break a filibuster to produce 60 affirmative votes. As Ornstein put it to me, “it’s the majority that’s screwed” in the Senate. If the majority does not have 60 votes to proceed to legislation, obstructionist senators merely need only sit on their hands.
Finding 60 votes can be a difficult task in a 100-person Senate. It would be an even more difficult task in an 80-person Senate if many members are incapacitated or otherwise unable to vote.
So what can be done?
Though a constitutional amendment is almost certainly off the table — at least in the short term — there are still steps Congress can take right now to preserve its ability to function.
One is a proposal by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rob Portman (R-OH), which would allow senators to cast votes remotely. Under their proposal, the two party leaders could jointly authorize remote voting for a period of 30 days, and then the full Senate could vote to extend this period. A similar rules change could be enacted in the House.
Such proposals would enable lawmakers to continue to cast votes even as they remain at home — or potentially even if they are quarantined. But they will only be enacted if the Senate’s Republican leadership agrees to bring it up for a vote.
Ornstein also emphasized to me that Congress should take advantage of technology such as the teleconferencing software Zoom to conduct “remote sessions” where the public can still see legislation being deliberated and oversight hearings being held. Congress does not want “to be in a situation where you can’t do any oversight,” Ornstein warned me, especially if it is about to give the Trump administration the power to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus funds.
Congress should also enact legislation, such as a bill proposed by Sens. Klobuchar and Ron Wyden (D-OR), which would make it easier for Americans to vote by mail. That wouldn’t just help secure the November election. It would also ensure that voters can participate in any special elections that are called to fill House vacancies.
The Senate, meanwhile, could amend its filibuster rules to place the burden of maintaining a filibuster on the senators behind that filibuster. Thus, instead of requiring the majority to produce 60 affirmative votes to end a filibuster, the Senate could require the minority to produce 41 negative votes to maintain a filibuster.
Finally, Congress may want to consider enacting a continuing resolution or other appropriations legislation to ensure that the government remains funded — and that the debt ceiling is not breached — for as long as the coronavirus crisis is likely to last. That way, if the worst happens and Congress truly becomes unable to function, the government will continue to operate.
Many of these reforms will need to be enacted under suboptimal circumstances. Members may struggle with the new technology they will need to use to conduct deliberations or to cast votes. And Congress will need to ensure that its remote voting system is secure from hackers, even while many of the developers who would produce such a system are stuck working from home.
But the consequences of doing nothing are potentially much worse. As the Commission report warned, “in the event of a disaster that debilitated Congress, the vacuum could be filled by unilateral executive action — perhaps a benign form of martial law. The country might get by, but at a terrible cost to our democratic institutions.”
Unless you are comfortable with giving that kind of power to Donald Trump, the only alternative is to ensure that Congress can function during a pandemic.


vox--2020-03-24--Money Talks: This family declared bankruptcy. Now they’re figuring out how to rebuild.

Welcome to Money Talks , a series in which we interview people about their relationships with money , their relationships with each other , and how those relationships inform one another .
Running Balance is a newsletter about a family of four living at 200 percent of the poverty line .
Mrs. Running Balance is bringing in the family income , Mr. Running Balance is a stay-at-home dad , and they have a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old .
The Running Balances recently declared bankruptcy and are sharing their income and expenses online so people can understand what it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Houston on $ 47,000 a year .
The following remarks have been lightly condensed and edited for clarity .
Mr. RB : It ’ s been this kind of weird learning curve , especially since having kids .
When you ’ re two single people living around 200 percent of the poverty line , you can be as flexible as you need to be .
Once you have kids , you can ’ t put off something for them .
You become so much more acutely aware of where your finances are falling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when I was 28 years old , I moved back to my hometown and accepted a receptionist position making $ 33,000 a year .
I was single , and I was like , “ I think I can make that work on my own !
” Then I called my now-husband , who was my former high school boyfriend ( we dated for , like , a week in high school ) , and he was living with his parents while freelancing and going to school , and then we just kind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we just kind of got married , and then we just kind of had kids , and there was no real point where we got financially prepared to have kids .
It was just like , oh , this is happening .
Mr. RB : We ’ re in a major metro area , so rent is very expensive , especially if you need to find room for kids .
We ’ re living in an 800-square-foot apartment with a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old .
[ Editor ’ s note : Rent for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ]
Until very recently , most of the rest of our money went toward credit cards .
Mrs. RB : When our bankruptcy attorney pulled my credit report , it came out to about $ 53,000 in debt ; $ 9,000 is from a joint card I had with my mother that I didn ’ t know about , so that isn ’ t technically ours , but the rest is for sure .
Mr. RB : Having kids turned out to be a lot more expensive than we thought it would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those appointments .
During the pregnancies for both of our children , Mrs. RB was still hourly , so anything you ’ re missing for a doctor ’ s appointment is actual hours off , and both times she had to go on bed rest for high-risk pregnancies .
That ’ s a huge part of our debt .
“ We just kind of moved in together , and then we just kind of got married , and then we just kind of had kids , and there was no real point where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Mrs. RB : My husband and I came up with an estimate of about $ 7,000 , which includes $ 5,000 in lost wages , combined over the two pregnancies .
We were so lucky , too , compared to a lot of people .
I didn ’ t get maternity leave , but I got short-term disability , so I was really lucky that I was able to get 80 percent of my pay while I was on bed rest and for 10 weeks after both of my C-sections .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back-to-back years was a real hit financially .
We started putting things on the cards in emergencies — there were times when we would go out to eat where we probably shouldn ’ t have because we couldn ’ t afford it , but more often we would spend all the money we had and then we ’ d need to get diapers or formula or groceries , and it would go on the credit card , and the next month the credit card minimum would be higher , so we ’ d @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money for groceries and diapers and formula .
So it kind of got to be this vicious cycle .
Mr. RB : We started considering bankruptcy when we began thinking about moving states , from Texas to Washington , and were looking at , “ Okay , if we want to move into a job search and possibly have to go off any kind of savings and start really trying to save money , how much would we need to save ?
” We are lucky to have the opportunity to stay with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , so we won ’ t have to immediately save a first-last-deposit situation , but we started looking at it and said , “ Oh , we ’ ll never be able to save enough money to last even a few weeks , not with the amount of debt payments we ’ re making.
” Even if we don ’ t have to pay rent for a month , there was just going to be no way .
I looked at Mrs. Running Balance one day and said , “ We don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We could just not pay this.
” She was like , “ But then how would we get a house ?
” Mrs. RB : I ’ m a really big rule follower , so I was kind of screaming internally when he said that .
But then we came to the realization that if we ever wanted a house , we have no money , so we ’ d have to save money — and we can ’ t save money the way we ’ re doing now .
So if a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ credit report for seven years , we weren ’ t going to be able to buy a house in that amount of time anyway if we didn ’ t declare bankruptcy .
Since that was really the only reason holding me back — also the rule-following , and the stigma of it , that was something to get over — we just realized that , in our case , maybe it did make sense to clear it out and start over .
We reached out to a bankruptcy lawyer and did a consultation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of our debts and all of our assets , and then she said , “ This is a pretty clear-cut Chapter 7 case , and you ’ ll be able to walk away from it .
You ’ ll be able to keep your car if you keep making your payments , and you won ’ t have to give up your clothes or your children ’ s toys because there are exemptions for all of that.
” So we went ahead and went forward with that , and although we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it , it ’ s been such a huge relief .
Like , the mental stress of it , I can ’ t even describe to you .
Mr. RB : When I was 21 , I was living check-to-check and I took out a payday loan under the advice of a neighbor .
Then I was under the same payday loan for a year and a half , because if you ’ re somebody who ’ s taking out a payday loan , you ’ re never going to make up that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the interest and also not need money for rent and food and living .
The credit cards — I kind of realized that it was like a payday loan in slow motion .
You were never going to make up the shortfall without a significant positive financial change .
Mrs. RB : We just realized that we were never going to make enough money , unless — and this is literally how I paid off my student loans , my father died and I used his life insurance policy to pay off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of where I was with the credit cards , where I was , I don ’ t know , going to pay the minimums for another 20 years , until one of us got an inheritance and we could clear them out .
Mr. RB : I think the single biggest big-picture thing for us , having the two kids , is looking at a house before they ’ re out of elementary school .
I grew up sharing a bedroom with my twin brother for most of my childhood , and being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there ’ s no space to do anything in a small apartment , and that was the biggest impetus for the bankruptcy .
It was like , “ Oh , we ’ re never going to get out from under this.
” We were never going to be able to afford a house .
In researching bankruptcy , one of the No .
1 scare tactics is “ no matter how far you are in debt , whatever you do , don ’ t declare bankruptcy because people won ’ t want to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if you ’ re so far in debt , it ’ s not like you ’ re on the precipice of homeownership .
It ’ s not like , “ Oh , if we could just make the payments for a couple more months , we ’ ll be in a four-bedroom.
” Mrs. RB : I grew up in apartments inside the city with a single mom , and we moved every year or every two years , and that ’ s something I don ’ t necessarily want my kids to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but to have a better sense of stability for them is something that ’ s important to us .
Mr. RB : As soon as we stopped paying the credit cards , we were all of a sudden saving money .
The ever-increasing credit card debt we found ourselves in was kind of a budgeting boot camp , because we were like , “ We have to stop putting money on these cards but we have to keep making the payments.
” Now that we ’ re not making the payments , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but the money is not just evaporating .
We have a small savings account now — literally very small , hundreds of dollars , but it ’ s there .
“ If you ’ re so far in debt , it ’ s not like you ’ re on the precipice of homeownership .
It ’ s not lik , ‘ Oh , if we could just make the payments for a couple more months , we ’ ll be in a four-bedroom.
’ ” Mrs. RB : Our biggest struggle is eating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than that , we ’ ve cut our expenses pretty close to the bone .
Mr. RB : It was insane to find ourselves so far in debt , because we have none of the physical things that you ’ d associate with people winding up in debt .
We don ’ t have a fancy car , we don ’ t have a lot of clothes — I think both of us have five outfits each — and our TV cost $ 108 from Walmart .
That said , the theme of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ sometimes you have to get Chipotle.
” Our family is struggling , but we just spent $ 23 on chips and salsa .
We used to say that we would never eat out , but any time you say you ’ re never going to do something , you actually end up doing it more .
Instead of having the planned release valve , you end up saying , “ This just has to happen today.
” Then , two days later , because it ’ s not on the schedule , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chipotle !
” Mrs. RB : This is our first paycheck where we ’ re actually budgeting for eating out : $ 50 per paycheck , or $ 100 a month .
Honestly , budgeting $ 100 a month toward eating out still feels a little outrageous to me , even though I know we ’ re spending that much even if we don ’ t budget .
With two kids and a tiny apartment kitchen , to be able to get a meal outside of the house once a week is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s nothing our kids hate more than seeing me on the other side of a baby gate with a bunch of hot pans going .
Plus , when you ’ ve got two howling babies and your partner says , “ Why don ’ t we get fast food , I had a terrible day , ” the emotional stakes of going , “ No , I don ’ t think that should happen ; tell me more about how bad your day was , but no greasy nuggets for you , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : There ’ s a lot of talk in the news about people who receive government benefits and people who are in poverty , and it ’ s really hard to see those people as human sometimes .
Part of starting the Running Balance newsletter , for me , was to put my voice out there .
I ’ m a nice person , I work a good job , but we are also struggling .
I wanted to shine a light on people who have the same kind of issues that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the spread of Covid-19 changed many of our lives ; I got back in touch with the Running Balances to learn how the coronavirus was affecting them financially , and here is Mrs. Running Balance ’ s response : Mrs. RB : I ’ m so , so lucky that my job is letting me telecommute for the foreseeable future , so we aren ’ t worried about making rent or paying bills .
My bankruptcy lawyer finally got back to me after a period of no communication and gave me a case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filed and I should get a court date in the mail by the end of this week .
( Assuming courts stay open ? )
On top of the virus stuff , I ’ ve been getting about five or six calls a day from credit card companies , so that will be a huge weight off .
We dipped into savings to get more groceries the day before payday ( last Friday ) because our usual grocery store got cleaned out and I was admittedly spooked by it .
We went to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and stocked up on five gallons of milk ( not as drastic as it sounds with two toddlers ) , eggs , diapers , potatoes , and some household essentials we were running low on .
( A package of toilet paper , dish soap , laundry detergent , and tissues . )
We did break our one-streaming-service-at-a-time rule and signed up for a trial of Disney+ that we ’ re probably not going to cancel .
I ’ m expecting to spend more on charging the car this month since I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I ’ m also expecting to have to pay overages for data for our home internet with all of the streaming we ’ ll be doing , not just kid shows but also virtual meetings that I ’ ll need to be in .
But we have almost no other expenses since we can ’ t really leave the house .
We haven ’ t eaten out in a week and have no plans to going forward .
It just feels like too big of a health risk .
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Welcome to Money Talks, a series in which we interview people about their relationships with money, their relationships with each other, and how those relationships inform one another.
Running Balance is a newsletter about a family of four living at 200 percent of the poverty line. Mrs. Running Balance is bringing in the family income, Mr. Running Balance is a stay-at-home dad, and they have a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old. The Running Balances recently declared bankruptcy and are sharing their income and expenses online so people can understand what it’s really like to raise two children in Houston on $47,000 a year.
The following remarks have been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.
Mr. RB: It’s been this kind of weird learning curve, especially since having kids. When you’re two single people living around 200 percent of the poverty line, you can be as flexible as you need to be. Once you have kids, you can’t put off something for them. You become so much more acutely aware of where your finances are falling short.
Mrs. RB: In 2014, when I was 28 years old, I moved back to my hometown and accepted a receptionist position making $33,000 a year. I was single, and I was like, “I think I can make that work on my own!” Then I called my now-husband, who was my former high school boyfriend (we dated for, like, a week in high school), and he was living with his parents while freelancing and going to school, and then we just kind of moved in together, and then we just kind of got married, and then we just kind of had kids, and there was no real point where we got financially prepared to have kids. It was just like, oh, this is happening.
Mr. RB: We’re in a major metro area, so rent is very expensive, especially if you need to find room for kids. We’re living in an 800-square-foot apartment with a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old. [Editor’s note: Rent for this apartment is $1,050 a month.] Until very recently, most of the rest of our money went toward credit cards.
Mrs. RB: When our bankruptcy attorney pulled my credit report, it came out to about $53,000 in debt; $9,000 is from a joint card I had with my mother that I didn’t know about, so that isn’t technically ours, but the rest is for sure.
Mr. RB: Having kids turned out to be a lot more expensive than we thought it would be. Literally the process of all those appointments. During the pregnancies for both of our children, Mrs. RB was still hourly, so anything you’re missing for a doctor’s appointment is actual hours off, and both times she had to go on bed rest for high-risk pregnancies. That’s a huge part of our debt.
“We just kind of moved in together, and then we just kind of got married, and then we just kind of had kids, and there was no real point where we got financially prepared to have kids”
Mrs. RB: My husband and I came up with an estimate of about $7,000, which includes $5,000 in lost wages, combined over the two pregnancies. We were so lucky, too, compared to a lot of people. I didn’t get maternity leave, but I got short-term disability, so I was really lucky that I was able to get 80 percent of my pay while I was on bed rest and for 10 weeks after both of my C-sections. But taking a 20 percent pay cut on back-to-back years was a real hit financially.
We started putting things on the cards in emergencies — there were times when we would go out to eat where we probably shouldn’t have because we couldn’t afford it, but more often we would spend all the money we had and then we’d need to get diapers or formula or groceries, and it would go on the credit card, and the next month the credit card minimum would be higher, so we’d pay the minimum and would have less money for groceries and diapers and formula. So it kind of got to be this vicious cycle.
Mr. RB: We started considering bankruptcy when we began thinking about moving states, from Texas to Washington, and were looking at, “Okay, if we want to move into a job search and possibly have to go off any kind of savings and start really trying to save money, how much would we need to save?” We are lucky to have the opportunity to stay with a family member when we get there, so we won’t have to immediately save a first-last-deposit situation, but we started looking at it and said, “Oh, we’ll never be able to save enough money to last even a few weeks, not with the amount of debt payments we’re making.” Even if we don’t have to pay rent for a month, there was just going to be no way.
I looked at Mrs. Running Balance one day and said, “We don’t have debtor’s prison. We could just not pay this.” She was like, “But then how would we get a house?”
Mrs. RB: I’m a really big rule follower, so I was kind of screaming internally when he said that. But then we came to the realization that if we ever wanted a house, we have no money, so we’d have to save money — and we can’t save money the way we’re doing now. So if a bankruptcy is going to be on my credit report for seven years, we weren’t going to be able to buy a house in that amount of time anyway if we didn’t declare bankruptcy.
Since that was really the only reason holding me back — also the rule-following, and the stigma of it, that was something to get over — we just realized that, in our case, maybe it did make sense to clear it out and start over.
We reached out to a bankruptcy lawyer and did a consultation, and she had us write down all of our debts and all of our assets, and then she said, “This is a pretty clear-cut Chapter 7 case, and you’ll be able to walk away from it. You’ll be able to keep your car if you keep making your payments, and you won’t have to give up your clothes or your children’s toys because there are exemptions for all of that.” So we went ahead and went forward with that, and although we’re still in the process of finalizing it, it’s been such a huge relief. Like, the mental stress of it, I can’t even describe to you.
Mr. RB: When I was 21, I was living check-to-check and I took out a payday loan under the advice of a neighbor. Then I was under the same payday loan for a year and a half, because if you’re somebody who’s taking out a payday loan, you’re never going to make up that initial shortfall to pay back the loan and the interest and also not need money for rent and food and living.
The credit cards — I kind of realized that it was like a payday loan in slow motion. You were never going to make up the shortfall without a significant positive financial change.
Mrs. RB: We just realized that we were never going to make enough money, unless — and this is literally how I paid off my student loans, my father died and I used his life insurance policy to pay off my loans. That’s kind of where I was with the credit cards, where I was, I don’t know, going to pay the minimums for another 20 years, until one of us got an inheritance and we could clear them out.
Mr. RB: I think the single biggest big-picture thing for us, having the two kids, is looking at a house before they’re out of elementary school. I grew up sharing a bedroom with my twin brother for most of my childhood, and being just on top of each other, there’s no space to do anything in a small apartment, and that was the biggest impetus for the bankruptcy. It was like, “Oh, we’re never going to get out from under this.” We were never going to be able to afford a house.
In researching bankruptcy, one of the No. 1 scare tactics is “no matter how far you are in debt, whatever you do, don’t declare bankruptcy because people won’t want to give you a home loan.” But if you’re so far in debt, it’s not like you’re on the precipice of homeownership. It’s not like, “Oh, if we could just make the payments for a couple more months, we’ll be in a four-bedroom.”
Mrs. RB: I grew up in apartments inside the city with a single mom, and we moved every year or every two years, and that’s something I don’t necessarily want my kids to have to do. It was fine, but to have a better sense of stability for them is something that’s important to us.
Mr. RB: As soon as we stopped paying the credit cards, we were all of a sudden saving money. The ever-increasing credit card debt we found ourselves in was kind of a budgeting boot camp, because we were like, “We have to stop putting money on these cards but we have to keep making the payments.” Now that we’re not making the payments, we have the same financial discipline, but the money is not just evaporating. We have a small savings account now — literally very small, hundreds of dollars, but it’s there.
“If you’re so far in debt, it’s not like you’re on the precipice of homeownership. It’s not lik, ‘Oh, if we could just make the payments for a couple more months, we’ll be in a four-bedroom.’”
Mrs. RB: Our biggest struggle is eating outside of the house, but other than that, we’ve cut our expenses pretty close to the bone.
Mr. RB: It was insane to find ourselves so far in debt, because we have none of the physical things that you’d associate with people winding up in debt. We don’t have a fancy car, we don’t have a lot of clothes — I think both of us have five outfits each — and our TV cost $108 from Walmart.
That said, the theme of the Running Balance blog seems to be “sometimes you have to get Chipotle.” Our family is struggling, but we just spent $23 on chips and salsa. We used to say that we would never eat out, but any time you say you’re never going to do something, you actually end up doing it more. Instead of having the planned release valve, you end up saying, “This just has to happen today.” Then, two days later, because it’s not on the schedule, you say, “Okay, more Chipotle!”
Mrs. RB: This is our first paycheck where we’re actually budgeting for eating out: $50 per paycheck, or $100 a month. Honestly, budgeting $100 a month toward eating out still feels a little outrageous to me, even though I know we’re spending that much even if we don’t budget. With two kids and a tiny apartment kitchen, to be able to get a meal outside of the house once a week is a reasonable goal.
Mr. RB: There’s nothing our kids hate more than seeing me on the other side of a baby gate with a bunch of hot pans going. Plus, when you’ve got two howling babies and your partner says, “Why don’t we get fast food, I had a terrible day,” the emotional stakes of going, “No, I don’t think that should happen; tell me more about how bad your day was, but no greasy nuggets for you,” are pretty high.
Mrs. RB: There’s a lot of talk in the news about people who receive government benefits and people who are in poverty, and it’s really hard to see those people as human sometimes. Part of starting the Running Balance newsletter, for me, was to put my voice out there. I’m a nice person, I work a good job, but we are also struggling. I wanted to shine a light on people who have the same kind of issues that we do.
This interview took place before the spread of Covid-19 changed many of our lives; I got back in touch with the Running Balances to learn how the coronavirus was affecting them financially, and here is Mrs. Running Balance’s response:
Mrs. RB: I’m so, so lucky that my job is letting me telecommute for the foreseeable future, so we aren’t worried about making rent or paying bills.
My bankruptcy lawyer finally got back to me after a period of no communication and gave me a case number, which means everything has been filed and I should get a court date in the mail by the end of this week. (Assuming courts stay open?) On top of the virus stuff, I’ve been getting about five or six calls a day from credit card companies, so that will be a huge weight off.
We dipped into savings to get more groceries the day before payday (last Friday) because our usual grocery store got cleaned out and I was admittedly spooked by it. We went to a different grocery chain near our house and stocked up on five gallons of milk (not as drastic as it sounds with two toddlers), eggs, diapers, potatoes, and some household essentials we were running low on. (A package of toilet paper, dish soap, laundry detergent, and tissues.)
We did break our one-streaming-service-at-a-time rule and signed up for a trial of Disney+ that we’re probably not going to cancel.
I’m expecting to spend more on charging the car this month since I’m not charging for free at work. I’m also expecting to have to pay overages for data for our home internet with all of the streaming we’ll be doing, not just kid shows but also virtual meetings that I’ll need to be in. But we have almost no other expenses since we can’t really leave the house.
We haven’t eaten out in a week and have no plans to going forward. It just feels like too big of a health risk.
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vox--2020-03-24--How the coronavirus crisis will hit American workers, in one chart

The people who can least afford to lose their jobs are the ones who ’ ll be hit the fastest and the hardest by the coronavirus recession .
There are still a lot of unknowns around what coronavirus will mean for the economy , and we won ’ t have a full picture of the decline — how sharp , how deep , and how long — for quite some time .
But there ’ s little doubt that a recession , at the very least , is here .
Broad swaths of the economy have been shut down , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worse before it gets better .
And while medical and health care workers are obviously on the front lines of the health crisis , low-wage and working-class people are on the front lines of the economic crisis .
In some cases , they occupy the posts we ’ ve deemed “ essential ” to keep things up and running — people who work at grocery stores and pharmacies , and in delivery .
But hundreds of thousands , and likely millions , of others are the first ones losing their livelihoods as businesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and shops across the country shutter .
According to estimates from the US Private Sector Job Quality Index , a project from Cornell University Law School and others , more than 37 million in jobs in the United States are vulnerable to layoffs in the short term .
And the most vulnerable workers are those who can ’ t afford it .
Here ’ s a chart showing which industries will likely be hardest hit by short-term layoffs , and how many of those are considered low-wage : The Job Quality Index team @ @ @ @ @ @ @ low-hour jobs , defined as those with a weekly average income of under $ 800 , are at risk right now .
Its estimates focus on workers in sectors “ that are effectively being forced to shut down ” right now because of the coronavirus , a paper outlining the estimates explains .
“ There is a subset of these workers , in jobs often offering substantially less income than the above average , who are particularly vulnerable to cessation of economic activity due to the spreading pandemic .
Many occupy front-line , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wages and a limited number of hours of work per week , ” the paper reads .
The Financial Times , MarketWatch , and others covered the findings .
Restaurant and food service workers risk layoffs in the near term ( if they haven ’ t lost their jobs already ) .
Also hyper-vulnerable : employees in retail , education , entertainment , and travel .
Unemployment numbers in the US are about to skyrocket If you don ’ t already know someone who has lost their job amid the coronavirus crisis ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job yourself ) , you will soon .
The restaurant industry has ground to a halt across much of the country , with businesses being ordered to shutter entirely and social distancing keeping people at home .
The same goes for department stores and retailers , gyms , hotels , nail salons , barbershops , and multiple other industries and sectors .
Indicators show that the unemployment numbers are likely to get very high , very fast .
Weekly jobless claims rose to 281,000 nationally the week ending on March 14 , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 2.25 million from March 15 to 21 .
As Vox ’ s Matt Yglesias explained , the number of unemployment insurance claims coming in across the country is on track to be “ so unprecedented it ’ s quite literally off the charts ” : Some estimates predict near-catastrophic levels of unemployment .
St. Louis Fed president James Bullard estimated the unemployment rate could soar to 30 percent in the second quarter of the year , which according to Reuters would be worse than the Great Depression and Great Recession .
Others @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pessimistic — in their outlooks .
Morgan Stanley economists in a note on Sunday estimated unemployment will average nearly 13 percent in the second quarter of the year , nearly quadruple what it was in February .
CEOs aren ’ t losing their jobs over this yet .
Average workers are .
It ’ s always better to be in the C-suite than on the sales floor , and the coronavirus crisis is about to show us just how much .
People who work low-wage and hourly jobs are already vulnerable in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them have savings to tide them over ?
How many of them are already in debt ?
How many never had health insurance in the first place , or — because in the United States , health insurance is often tied to one ’ s job — are about to lose coverage along with their paychecks ?
Washington lawmakers are currently debating whom to bail out and how as an $ 1.8 trillion stimulus package stalls in Congress .
As Vox ’ s Li Zhou and Ella Nilsen explain , a “ major @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 500 billion in loans and support to corporations and how much oversight should be tied to it to ensure companies use the money to keep workers paid and employed , not to pay bonuses to CEOs and dividends to shareholders .
But a perhaps more urgent part of the bill , at least right now , is a potential payout to everyday Americans .
For many workers , it ’ s about to feel like the sky is falling , if it doesn ’ t already , and they need the money @ @

The people who can least afford to lose their jobs are the ones who’ll be hit the fastest and the hardest by the coronavirus recession.
There are still a lot of unknowns around what coronavirus will mean for the economy, and we won’t have a full picture of the decline — how sharp, how deep, and how long — for quite some time. But there’s little doubt that a recession, at the very least, is here. Broad swaths of the economy have been shut down, and the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.
And while medical and health care workers are obviously on the front lines of the health crisis, low-wage and working-class people are on the front lines of the economic crisis. In some cases, they occupy the posts we’ve deemed “essential” to keep things up and running — people who work at grocery stores and pharmacies, and in delivery. But hundreds of thousands, and likely millions, of others are the first ones losing their livelihoods as businesses such as restaurants, movie theaters, and shops across the country shutter.
According to estimates from the US Private Sector Job Quality Index, a project from Cornell University Law School and others, more than 37 million in jobs in the United States are vulnerable to layoffs in the short term. And the most vulnerable workers are those who can’t afford it. Here’s a chart showing which industries will likely be hardest hit by short-term layoffs, and how many of those are considered low-wage:
The Job Quality Index team estimates that some 35 million low-wage and low-hour jobs, defined as those with a weekly average income of under $800, are at risk right now. Its estimates focus on workers in sectors “that are effectively being forced to shut down” right now because of the coronavirus, a paper outlining the estimates explains. “There is a subset of these workers, in jobs often offering substantially less income than the above average, who are particularly vulnerable to cessation of economic activity due to the spreading pandemic. Many occupy front-line, customer-facing jobs that offer both low hourly wages and a limited number of hours of work per week,” the paper reads.
The Financial Times, MarketWatch, and others covered the findings.
Restaurant and food service workers risk layoffs in the near term (if they haven’t lost their jobs already). Also hyper-vulnerable: employees in retail, education, entertainment, and travel.
Unemployment numbers in the US are about to skyrocket
If you don’t already know someone who has lost their job amid the coronavirus crisis (or you haven’t lost your job yourself), you will soon.
The restaurant industry has ground to a halt across much of the country, with businesses being ordered to shutter entirely and social distancing keeping people at home. The same goes for department stores and retailers, gyms, hotels, nail salons, barbershops, and multiple other industries and sectors. Indicators show that the unemployment numbers are likely to get very high, very fast.
Weekly jobless claims rose to 281,000 nationally the week ending on March 14, and Goldman Sachs estimated the number would climb to 2.25 million from March 15 to 21. As Vox’s Matt Yglesias explained, the number of unemployment insurance claims coming in across the country is on track to be “so unprecedented it’s quite literally off the charts”:
The surge is so large that there’s basically no way to forecast what’s next for the economy since we’ve never seen layoffs occur at this pace in the past. It’s a scary situation that underscores the extent to which this recession is not the same as the 2008 Great Recession — it might be worse.
Some estimates predict near-catastrophic levels of unemployment. St. Louis Fed president James Bullard estimated the unemployment rate could soar to 30 percent in the second quarter of the year, which according to Reuters would be worse than the Great Depression and Great Recession. Others have been more conservative — but still pessimistic — in their outlooks. Morgan Stanley economists in a note on Sunday estimated unemployment will average nearly 13 percent in the second quarter of the year, nearly quadruple what it was in February.
CEOs aren’t losing their jobs over this yet. Average workers are.
It’s always better to be in the C-suite than on the sales floor, and the coronavirus crisis is about to show us just how much.
People who work low-wage and hourly jobs are already vulnerable in a ton of ways. How many of them have savings to tide them over? How many of them are already in debt? How many never had health insurance in the first place, or — because in the United States, health insurance is often tied to one’s job — are about to lose coverage along with their paychecks?
Washington lawmakers are currently debating whom to bail out and how as an $1.8 trillion stimulus package stalls in Congress. As Vox’s Li Zhou and Ella Nilsen explain, a “major sticking point” of the bill is $500 billion in loans and support to corporations and how much oversight should be tied to it to ensure companies use the money to keep workers paid and employed, not to pay bonuses to CEOs and dividends to shareholders. But a perhaps more urgent part of the bill, at least right now, is a potential payout to everyday Americans. For many workers, it’s about to feel like the sky is falling, if it doesn’t already, and they need the money now.


vox--2020-03-24--7 restaurant workers on how their lives have been changed by the coronavirus

As the coronavirus spreads to more and more cities in the US , restaurants across the country are scaling back their services — or shutting their doors altogether — to help slow the spread of the disease .
Some cities , including San Francisco , have ordered all non-essential businesses to close indefinitely .
In some cases , this means bars and restaurants can stay open , but only for takeout and delivery ( which have been classified as essential ) .
This precaution cuts down on foot traffic but also means lower wages for staffers who rely on tips @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to seven current and former food-service employees about their experiences working in restaurants , bars , and cafés as Covid-19 spread to all 50 states — and about how they ’ re faring now .
Some are still showing up to work ; others have filed for unemployment .
Some are worried about being exposed to the virus or exposing someone else .
And they ’ re all worried about paying their bills now that food-service jobs are disappearing everywhere , with no end in sight .
These interviews have been condensed and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sporting events started to get canceled and when we found out Tom Hanks got it , we figured it was about to hit the fan .
But up until then , it was barely even discussed at my place .
Before we closed , the servers were taking it more seriously than the customers .
Sunday night , every single time someone came in , we found ourselves feeling a weird mixture of gratitude and irritation .
We were thinking , “ It ’ s good that we ’ re working , because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but on the flip side , is no one paying attention ?
” “ We were thinking , ‘ Is no one paying attention ?
’ ” The last day I worked was Sunday night [ the 14th ] .
We usually get an email Saturday or Sunday with our schedule .
We got it this Sunday with a message [ from ] our manager saying , “ Some shifts have been cut back because we don ’ t know what ’ s going on.
” Then the city said all non-essential businesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an email saying we ’ re closed for two weeks .
No one in the front of the house — hosts , bussers , and servers — will be needed for at least two weeks .
I can ’ t speak for every restaurant , but tips were 90 percent of my income .
My hourly income goes to my taxes , so I get a $ 0 paycheck every two weeks .
I saved pretty well , so I ’ ll be good for a couple of months , but everyone I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worse situation than I am .
Some of their bank accounts are in the negative already , because you ’ re living week-to-week depending on how busy the restaurant is .
Me and a lot of my friends are hoping that it gets solved as quickly as possible .
I think people are intentionally not thinking too far out , because we ’ ll be terrified .
Mai , worked at a Vietnamese restaurant in New York City We started losing customers when the first cases in New York were announced .
First @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NYU students .
There was a time when only the international students were coming .
We ’ re a big college-campus restaurant , so we rely on students a lot .
When they go on break , we cut our shifts .
Our shifts started getting cut [ the second week in March ] .
We had two servers and two bussers on the floor , and then we just had one busser and one server .
We used to fill the restaurant ; we ’ d have lines out the door .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ closed , we didn ’ t have anyone for the first hour , and we maybe filled half the store .
During peak season , if I worked four days , which is 27 hours , I ’ d make like $ 650 a week , which came out to around $ 25 an hour , more or less , depending on the tips .
Last week , we went from 150 tickets a shift to 20 tickets a shift .
Minimum wage is $ 10 an hour , so we basically just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s a small family business .
Most of the people who work there are people the owner knows personally , and none of us are career servers .
I ’ m not sure if it ’ s within his means to give anyone PTO , especially not now .
I feel like it ’ s the government ’ s job to bail everyone out .
Abe , worked as a bartender at a bar in Maryland As there were more cases here in Maryland , [ foot traffic ] started to slow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who thought it was a joke and were waiting for it to blow over , and people who were canceling reservations or just not coming in at all .
I worked at a speakeasy-style cocktail bar .
It has a dark , 1920s kind of feel .
It started to get a little eerie when it was just empty .
I actually woke up and saw [ that we were closing down ] on one of the owner ’ s Instagram [ pages ] , and a few hours later I got an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It said we were all on layoff status , with a link to Maryland ’ s unemployment [ website ] .
It said if we aren ’ t all back by March 31 , then we all lose our health insurance .
There was no severance .
Any gift cards that are sold now , the owners are matching that and it ’ s going into a pool for all the employees .
Mind you , the restaurant group has 1,500 employees .
We have 10 restaurants in the city .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us to go pick up food at one of the restaurants , but by the time I got there , they had closed it because they had already run out of food .
The Baltimore Bartenders ’ Guild put together a virtual tip jar that you can add your name to with your Cash App or Venmo next to it .
People can go in and pick you out by either restaurant or name .
I also work in the music industry .
I do marketing and hospitality and run an electronic music @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of shows .
Not only did we not make any money off the shows , but the deposits we put down on artists , sound people , [ and ] lighting are just completely gone .
We ’ re a couple thousand in the hole right now .
All of those artists , and our company as a whole , are hurting .
The restaurant industry is hurting , all of the things that got shut down are hurting .
We bail out big corporations ; I think it ’ s time we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economy going to begin with .
I ’ m making craft cocktails and bottling them and driving around making deliveries , just to make money now .
I just started it up , and it ’ s been going well .
I just had to make another case ; I literally just finished capping all the bottles .
I take the same precautions as when I bartend .
I wear gloves because I ’ m touching people ’ s food products , and I have a mask .
I ’ m not too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my immune system is pretty good — but I don ’ t want to pass anything along to anyone else .
I think my employers were ahead of what the city governments were asking .
The city of Cambridge , where two of the shops are , was pretty quick-acting .
The main shop is [ in ] Arlington , which had some of the initial cases from this Biogen meeting .
It was the beginning of last week , I think [ on March 8 or 9 ] , that the town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I was making huge batches of pre-mixed bleach and water that would sanitize surfaces , and trying to remind everyone that it ’ s particularly important now to use this on places where people are touching , like the door .
It wasn ’ t really until Sunday or Monday that we had fewer people actually coming into the stores , and what they were getting when they were coming in was different .
Instead of getting lattes and sitting down in the store for an hour — this is before we had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get something to go , and an additional bag of coffee or a four-pack of cold brew for later .
All of the stores are closed now .
One of the stores was open until noon Wednesday [ the 18th ] , and that was going to be the end of it for the foreseeable future .
I filed for unemployment in the state of Massachusetts about two hours ago .
Before that , a lot of regulars who came in left a $ 5 tip when they ’ d normally leave a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I appreciate that they ’ re trying to do their part to make sure the shop stays afloat , but I think if economic relief packages [ were ] in place , we wouldn ’ t have to have these conversations .
If the owners of the shop where I work already knew , for example , that they could get a zero-interest loan from the federal government — which is something the government has done a few times in history — they wouldn ’ t have to be thinking , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the money ?
” If I knew I was going to get a $ 1,000 check in a few weeks , I wouldn ’ t have to think about whether I should be going to work and possibly being another transmission vector .
I think solving the economic problems is a public health issue before it ’ s anything else .
On Monday , the governor closed all bars , restaurants , gyms , things like that .
Restaurants are still allowed to do takeout and delivery , but the process of shutting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I definitely think there should be something that ’ s done at the government level.
” After cases started to hit the US , we amped up our hygiene process really rapidly .
We were cleaning things every hour on the hour : wiping down tables , cleaning handles , cleaning other things .
We stopped accepting people ’ s personal cups to take with them , and we set up curbside orders .
The people who own our business were taking it pretty seriously .
We haven ’ t seen a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not super-worried yet , but I ’ m sure in the next couple of days it ’ ll definitely hit us pretty hard .
I don ’ t think there ’ s as much of a concern about getting sick as there is an economic concern .
I ’ m definitely worried about paying rent and buying groceries , but I graduated recently and am actively paying student loans , so it ’ s hard to balance what that ’ s going to look like in the future — just in the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ much ] paycheck to paycheck , so we ’ ll see how it goes .
I definitely think there should be something that ’ s done at the government level , supplying businesses with the cash flow to be able to keep going and to be able to pay workers .
A lot of people live paycheck to paycheck , and there ’ s a lot of uncertainty of what ’ s going to come next .
In food service , tips are really important .
That ’ s sometimes how I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hope there ’ s some sort of intervention .
At least deferring rent payments and bills , or even just supplying a check so people are able to afford necessities .
I worked at a bar that was famous for being open all the time .
It opens at 6 am and closes at 2 am — it ’ s a colorful crowd .
I was watching a lot of news coverage about the virus and I felt very conflicted about exposing myself or exposing [ people there ] , but it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still open and I was still on duty .
A lot of clientele are industry folks , other restaurant and bar staff , hotel folks .
More than anything , they were just kind of pissed about how it was affecting them .
I had one hotel guy come in and say they ’ re usually at 75 percent capacity year-round , and now they were at under 10 percent capacity .
Everyone was getting their shifts cut .
During my shift , the governor decreed all bars and restaurants should close , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and lock the place up in the middle of the day .
It was surreal .
The owner of the bar sent a mass text out to everyone saying that because he ’ s so uncertain as to how [ long ] things will be like this , he advises everyone to file for unemployment .
The thoughts around money are pretty bleak .
My wife works in a cash business as well — she ’ s part of a marijuana delivery service , and they were just shut down last night [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We have a lot of cash at the house because I make tips and she gets paid in cash , and then we ’ ll usually deposit it all once every month or so .
Now we ’ ve got quite a bit of cash on hand and we ’ re not depositing it .
It ’ d be great if the owner of my bar could somehow sustain me financially during this time , but that ’ s a tough expectation for a small-business owner who just had their income cut to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t seem realistic .
It seems like something bigger is probably required .
A large governmental response makes sense , because how else could you fix things at this scale ?
Right now , things seem like a random patchwork of localities and businesses and people trying to do what ’ s right and what ’ s best , but there ’ s not really been a broad and sweeping response .
Billy , works at a bakery and a restaurant bar in Colorado I live with someone who is immunosuppressed .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I was considering not coming in and using sick days for her sake , even though I don ’ t get paid sick time from either job .
The bosses at the restaurant job gave me this guilt trip attitude of , “ You ’ re low risk , it ’ s not that big a deal , don ’ t stress about it so much.
” At the restaurant job , they began implementing more safety measures .
They were like , “ Start washing your hands more often , pay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and don ’ t come into work.
” But they also had these really flippant attitudes of , “ Everyone is overreacting , it ’ s not a big deal .
We ’ re going to lose business because nobody is going out.
” “ Most of the time when I go into work , they send me [ home ] early because there ’ s not enough business.
” For the first week that we had American cases , there wasn ’ t much change [ in customer behavior ] , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ traffic .
Now I ’ m being scheduled way , way less .
In February , I was working close to 30 hours at both jobs , and now I barely work 20 between both .
Most of the time when I go into work , they send me [ home ] early because there ’ s not enough business .
Now that I ’ m working fewer hours and I ’ m not getting as much money , I might have to take out a student loan just to finish the semester @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to school , I didn ’ t take out any big student loans .
I was like , “ If I can ’ t pay it off on a credit card within six months , then I just won ’ t go.
” But I ’ m one of the luckier victims , because I don ’ t have kids like most of my coworkers do .
*Name has been changed for privacy reasons .
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As the coronavirus spreads to more and more cities in the US, restaurants across the country are scaling back their services — or shutting their doors altogether — to help slow the spread of the disease. Some cities, including San Francisco, have ordered all non-essential businesses to close indefinitely. In some cases, this means bars and restaurants can stay open, but only for takeout and delivery (which have been classified as essential). This precaution cuts down on foot traffic but also means lower wages for staffers who rely on tips to make ends meet.
I spoke to seven current and former food-service employees about their experiences working in restaurants, bars, and cafés as Covid-19 spread to all 50 states — and about how they’re faring now. Some are still showing up to work; others have filed for unemployment. Some are worried about being exposed to the virus or exposing someone else. And they’re all worried about paying their bills now that food-service jobs are disappearing everywhere, with no end in sight.
These interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.
Connor, worked at a small neighborhood bistro in Pennsylvania
Hourly wage before tips: $2.80
When all the sporting events started to get canceled and when we found out Tom Hanks got it, we figured it was about to hit the fan. But up until then, it was barely even discussed at my place.
Before we closed, the servers were taking it more seriously than the customers. Sunday night, every single time someone came in, we found ourselves feeling a weird mixture of gratitude and irritation. We were thinking, “It’s good that we’re working, because we’ll need the money, but on the flip side, is no one paying attention?”
“We were thinking, ‘Is no one paying attention?’”
The last day I worked was Sunday night [the 14th]. We usually get an email Saturday or Sunday with our schedule. We got it this Sunday with a message [from] our manager saying, “Some shifts have been cut back because we don’t know what’s going on.” Then the city said all non-essential businesses need to close, and we got an email saying we’re closed for two weeks. No one in the front of the house — hosts, bussers, and servers — will be needed for at least two weeks.
I can’t speak for every restaurant, but tips were 90 percent of my income. My hourly income goes to my taxes, so I get a $0 paycheck every two weeks.
I saved pretty well, so I’ll be good for a couple of months, but everyone I’ve talked to is in a worse situation than I am. Some of their bank accounts are in the negative already, because you’re living week-to-week depending on how busy the restaurant is. Me and a lot of my friends are hoping that it gets solved as quickly as possible. I think people are intentionally not thinking too far out, because we’ll be terrified.
Mai, worked at a Vietnamese restaurant in New York City
Hourly wage before tips: $10
We started losing customers when the first cases in New York were announced. First the locals stopped coming, then the NYU students. There was a time when only the international students were coming.
We’re a big college-campus restaurant, so we rely on students a lot. When they go on break, we cut our shifts. Our shifts started getting cut [the second week in March]. We had two servers and two bussers on the floor, and then we just had one busser and one server. We used to fill the restaurant; we’d have lines out the door. Last week, after the schools had closed, we didn’t have anyone for the first hour, and we maybe filled half the store. During peak season, if I worked four days, which is 27 hours, I’d make like $650 a week, which came out to around $25 an hour, more or less, depending on the tips. Last week, we went from 150 tickets a shift to 20 tickets a shift. Minimum wage is $10 an hour, so we basically just made $70 a shift.
Then they closed.
It’s a small family business. Most of the people who work there are people the owner knows personally, and none of us are career servers. I’m not sure if it’s within his means to give anyone PTO, especially not now. I feel like it’s the government’s job to bail everyone out.
Abe, worked as a bartender at a bar in Maryland
Hourly wage before tips: $3.63
As there were more cases here in Maryland, [foot traffic] started to slow down a lot. There were people who thought it was a joke and were waiting for it to blow over, and people who were canceling reservations or just not coming in at all. I worked at a speakeasy-style cocktail bar. It has a dark, 1920s kind of feel. It started to get a little eerie when it was just empty.
I actually woke up and saw [that we were closing down] on one of the owner’s Instagram [pages], and a few hours later I got an email saying we had been laid off. It said we were all on layoff status, with a link to Maryland’s unemployment [website]. It said if we aren’t all back by March 31, then we all lose our health insurance.
There was no severance. Any gift cards that are sold now, the owners are matching that and it’s going into a pool for all the employees. Mind you, the restaurant group has 1,500 employees. We have 10 restaurants in the city. They also put together a family meal for us to go pick up food at one of the restaurants, but by the time I got there, they had closed it because they had already run out of food. The Baltimore Bartenders’ Guild put together a virtual tip jar that you can add your name to with your Cash App or Venmo next to it. People can go in and pick you out by either restaurant or name.
I also work in the music industry. I do marketing and hospitality and run an electronic music production company. We canceled a handful of shows. Not only did we not make any money off the shows, but the deposits we put down on artists, sound people, [and] lighting are just completely gone. We’re a couple thousand in the hole right now. All of those artists, and our company as a whole, are hurting. The restaurant industry is hurting, all of the things that got shut down are hurting. We bail out big corporations; I think it’s time we bail out the people that keep the economy going to begin with.
I’m making craft cocktails and bottling them and driving around making deliveries, just to make money now. I just started it up, and it’s been going well. I just had to make another case; I literally just finished capping all the bottles. I take the same precautions as when I bartend. I wear gloves because I’m touching people’s food products, and I have a mask. I’m not too worried about myself — I feel like my immune system is pretty good — but I don’t want to pass anything along to anyone else.
Peter, worked as a barista in Massachusetts
Hourly wage before tips: $15
I think my employers were ahead of what the city governments were asking. The city of Cambridge, where two of the shops are, was pretty quick-acting. The main shop is [in] Arlington, which had some of the initial cases from this Biogen meeting. It was the beginning of last week, I think [on March 8 or 9], that the town put out their first initial warning.
I was making huge batches of pre-mixed bleach and water that would sanitize surfaces, and trying to remind everyone that it’s particularly important now to use this on places where people are touching, like the door.
It wasn’t really until Sunday or Monday that we had fewer people actually coming into the stores, and what they were getting when they were coming in was different. Instead of getting lattes and sitting down in the store for an hour — this is before we had to start removing seating — people would get something to go, and an additional bag of coffee or a four-pack of cold brew for later.
All of the stores are closed now. One of the stores was open until noon Wednesday [the 18th], and that was going to be the end of it for the foreseeable future. I filed for unemployment in the state of Massachusetts about two hours ago.
Before that, a lot of regulars who came in left a $5 tip when they’d normally leave a single dollar. I appreciate that, and I appreciate that they’re trying to do their part to make sure the shop stays afloat, but I think if economic relief packages [were] in place, we wouldn’t have to have these conversations. If the owners of the shop where I work already knew, for example, that they could get a zero-interest loan from the federal government — which is something the government has done a few times in history — they wouldn’t have to be thinking, “Should we stay open because we need the money?”
If I knew I was going to get a $1,000 check in a few weeks, I wouldn’t have to think about whether I should be going to work and possibly being another transmission vector. I think solving the economic problems is a public health issue before it’s anything else.
Calden, works at a local coffee shop in Colorado
Hourly wage before tips: $15
On Monday, the governor closed all bars, restaurants, gyms, things like that. Restaurants are still allowed to do takeout and delivery, but the process of shutting down is starting pretty rapidly here.
“I definitely think there should be something that’s done at the government level.”
After cases started to hit the US, we amped up our hygiene process really rapidly. We were cleaning things every hour on the hour: wiping down tables, cleaning handles, cleaning other things. We stopped accepting people’s personal cups to take with them, and we set up curbside orders. The people who own our business were taking it pretty seriously.
We haven’t seen a huge slowdown yet so we’re not super-worried yet, but I’m sure in the next couple of days it’ll definitely hit us pretty hard.
I don’t think there’s as much of a concern about getting sick as there is an economic concern. I’m definitely worried about paying rent and buying groceries, but I graduated recently and am actively paying student loans, so it’s hard to balance what that’s going to look like in the future — just in the next month, too. I live pretty [much] paycheck to paycheck, so we’ll see how it goes.
I definitely think there should be something that’s done at the government level, supplying businesses with the cash flow to be able to keep going and to be able to pay workers. A lot of people live paycheck to paycheck, and there’s a lot of uncertainty of what’s going to come next. In food service, tips are really important. That’s sometimes how I pay for my groceries. So I hope there’s some sort of intervention. At least deferring rent payments and bills, or even just supplying a check so people are able to afford necessities.
Marcus*, worked as a bartender in California
Hourly wage before tips: $15
I worked at a bar that was famous for being open all the time. It opens at 6 am and closes at 2 am — it’s a colorful crowd. I was watching a lot of news coverage about the virus and I felt very conflicted about exposing myself or exposing [people there], but it was a rock-and-a-hard-place thing. The bar was still open and I was still on duty. A lot of clientele are industry folks, other restaurant and bar staff, hotel folks. More than anything, they were just kind of pissed about how it was affecting them. I had one hotel guy come in and say they’re usually at 75 percent capacity year-round, and now they were at under 10 percent capacity. Everyone was getting their shifts cut.
During my shift, the governor decreed all bars and restaurants should close, so I had to do last call and lock the place up in the middle of the day. It was surreal. The owner of the bar sent a mass text out to everyone saying that because he’s so uncertain as to how [long] things will be like this, he advises everyone to file for unemployment.
The thoughts around money are pretty bleak. My wife works in a cash business as well — she’s part of a marijuana delivery service, and they were just shut down last night [on March 16], too. We have a lot of cash at the house because I make tips and she gets paid in cash, and then we’ll usually deposit it all once every month or so. Now we’ve got quite a bit of cash on hand and we’re not depositing it.
It’d be great if the owner of my bar could somehow sustain me financially during this time, but that’s a tough expectation for a small-business owner who just had their income cut to zero as well. It just doesn’t seem realistic. It seems like something bigger is probably required. A large governmental response makes sense, because how else could you fix things at this scale? Right now, things seem like a random patchwork of localities and businesses and people trying to do what’s right and what’s best, but there’s not really been a broad and sweeping response.
Billy, works at a bakery and a restaurant bar in Colorado
Hourly wage before tips: $8.15
I live with someone who is immunosuppressed. She has a weak respiratory system, and I was considering not coming in and using sick days for her sake, even though I don’t get paid sick time from either job. The bosses at the restaurant job gave me this guilt trip attitude of, “You’re low risk, it’s not that big a deal, don’t stress about it so much.”
At the restaurant job, they began implementing more safety measures. They were like, “Start washing your hands more often, pay attention if you’re feeling ill and don’t come into work.” But they also had these really flippant attitudes of, “Everyone is overreacting, it’s not a big deal. We’re going to lose business because nobody is going out.”
“Most of the time when I go into work, they send me [home] early because there’s not enough business.”
For the first week that we had American cases, there wasn’t much change [in customer behavior], but we rapidly saw a decrease in foot traffic. Now I’m being scheduled way, way less. In February, I was working close to 30 hours at both jobs, and now I barely work 20 between both. Most of the time when I go into work, they send me [home] early because there’s not enough business.
Now that I’m working fewer hours and I’m not getting as much money, I might have to take out a student loan just to finish the semester. When I decided to go back to school, I didn’t take out any big student loans. I was like, “If I can’t pay it off on a credit card within six months, then I just won’t go.” But I’m one of the luckier victims, because I don’t have kids like most of my coworkers do.
*Name has been changed for privacy reasons.
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