One of the great 2020 pandemic safety nets may be having unintended consequences, particularly in the restaurant industry. A weekly bonus in unemployment insurance is discouraging some low-wage and part-time workers from coming back to work.

“It served a great purpose. It saved a lot of employees from some really tough times,” said Paul Mancieri of Leo’s Ristorante. “But it seems it’s run its course.”

He’s speaking of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program (FPUC), which provides a $600 weekly supplement to individuals already collecting state unemployment. It was a key part of the $2 trillion CARES Act passed by Congress in March, impacting tens of millions of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits during the course of the pandemic.

The goal of the FPUC was to ensure the average worker still received the equivalent of 100 percent of his or her wages, to benefit workers in jobs and industries with lower average hourly pay. The FPUC is scheduled to be paid through July 25.

Anecdotally, it has been a little too effective, leaving some employers who are trying to reopen their businesses shorthanded (as staff are not motivated to return to work), and putting employers and employees with otherwise amicable working relationships in awkward positions. This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the restaurant industry, already among the industries hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It turns out that for many workers, state unemployment plus the FPUC means they bring home significantly more money by simply staying home.

“The government was very generous with extra dollars, but it should have been scaled regarding pay rates along with hours worked,” said Jeff Hirsh, owner of the Lobster Pot. “Now there is a problem with people stalling going back to work.”

It’s become a problem that exacerbates itself, as the delay in returning to work is preventing restaurants from opening at full strength, which is preventing them from increasing staff hours.

This has become a real struggle for Jordan Sawyer of the Bristol Oyster Bar, as he is trying to bring in enough staff to reopen his seven-days-a-week summer schedule on June 28.

“The biggest thing is that when we were so restricted with limited capacity, I didn’t have full-time work to offer anyone, so I didn’t feel like I could ask people to give up that money to come in for just a few hours here and there,” Mr. Sawyer said. His full-time staff of managers, bartenders, and cooks is up to full strength now, but he is still struggling to schedule part-time and seasonal staff.

“It was a good safety net during a national emergency, but now we have a duty to get back to work,” said Mr. Mancieri. “We still have some workers who are out and say they are not comfortable coming back, so if they feel they need it, but … personally, I think this should come to an end.”

One local restaurant employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, returned to work but admitted it was not a simple choice: “It was easier to stay home and make more money. Giving that up was tough, and with all the cleaning procedures, I feel like I’m working twice as hard for less money."

A college student, she said that thanks to the FPUC, she has actually made all the money she needs to cover her incidental expenses for her upcoming academic year, but she was compelled to come back to work out of a sense of obligation to her boss and her coworkers.

“They needed the help,” she said. “If I could have kept it up longer, I would have … but it seemed weird to make that much money by not working.”

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