"The restaurant business, inherently and pre-covid, was a toxic workplace," Whalen said. "You had an enormous wage gap between the back of the house and front of the house; rampant alcohol and drug problems; harassment issues; you've got people living in or near poverty working hourly jobs with no guarantees." When the industry collapsed, the pandemic merely amplified the pre-existing conditions, he said. "How many times are you going to go back to something that hurts you?" he said. After Alicia Macklin, who has an 11-year-old and a 2-year-old child, lost her job of seven years as bartender at a Spokane, Washington, night club, finding another hospitality job was not a viable option. "For me, it was like, 'I can't make minimum wage, I have to make double," she said, noting her childcare costs can range from $900 to $1,200 a month. "The wage needs to become livable."