Resources for Restaurant/Hospitality Workers Who Lost Work Due to COVID-19
March 16, 2020
With the Governor Newsom’s closing of bars, wineries, breweries and nightclubs in the state, thousands of Sacramentans who depend on the hospitality industry to pay their bills have had their livelihood abruptly ended. Here are some resources that might help while we wait for the service industry to reopen.
First of all, any employee who loses hours or is laid off due to COVID-19 is immediately eligible for unemployment. Per the state:
If your employer has reduced your hours or shut down operations due to COVID-19, you can file an Unemployment Insurance (UI) claim. UI provides partial wage replacement benefit payments to workers who lose their job or have their hours reduced, through no fault of their own. Workers who are temporarily unemployed due to COVID-19 and expected to return to work with their employer within a few weeks are not required to actively seek work each week. However, they must remain able and available and ready to work during their unemployment for each week of benefits claimed and meet all other eligibility criteria. Eligible individuals can receive benefits that range from $40-$450 per week.
You can apply online at edd.ca.gov.
The state also has a good calculator to figure out how much you’re eligible for. From what I can tell, it’s about half of what you made in the best quarter in the last year, capped at $450 per week. It’s a system that your employer’s already paid into and free to you. If you wait, you can’t go and apply for retroactive benefits, so do it right away to get as much as you can for yourself.
There are also local companies that are looking for workers right now.
All the supermarkets are looking for additional workers to help deal with curbside and delivery orders.
Here are a couple others that I spotted:
If you have a lead on jobs or other good resources, let me know and I'll update this post.
* Updated 10:45 p.m. on 3/16/2020