This story was written for the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
NEW YORK -- Ho-jae Kim, a waiter at a Korean restaurant in midtown Manhattan, is reminded of how vulnerable he is every time mask-less patrons cough as they walk by. When this happens, he immediately changes his own mask and washes and sanitizes his hands. But his devotion to good personal hygiene does little to assuage his fears of contracting the deadly virus.
“I don’t have medical insurance,” Kim said. “I’m really screwed if the worst happens.”
After a tumultuous six months, indoor dining returned to the New York City on Sept. 30, at 25% capacity, with tables spaced six feet apart, among other safety measures. To contain the virus, the city has also mandated that restaurants to take customers’ temperatures as they enter the establishment, collect contact information of at least one person from each party, and offer personal protective gear to staff.
But about three weeks in, indoor dining has magnified one sobering fact: The virus-hit restaurant industry faces a long-term battle to keep workers healthy.
“A part of me says the coronavirus is very scary,” Kim said. “Another part of me tells me that I have to make an income.”
Kim echoes the concerns of other servers in the city who work indoors and come into close contact with customers dining and conversing without face coverings. The nature of the job puts indoor servers at risk of getting the coronavirus.
Indeed, the contagion is airborne, and can spread beyond six feet, even after the person with the virus leaves the area, according to the CDC.
Working indoors at eateries even at a limited capacity is a “problem,” said Professor Vincent Racaniello, the Higgins Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University. “Customers can’t wear face masks in restaurants when they are drinking and eating, Rancaniello said. “So that’s the big problem.”
He added that the low transmission rate across New York City, as well as personal hygiene, are mitigating factors in lowering the chances of the wait staff getting COVID-19.
The citywide percentage of people returning positive results has been on the rise and reached 2.34% in the seven-day period ending Nov.10, according to the city health department. Mayor Bill de Blasio said earlier this week that the city has to “reevaluate” indoor dining in keeping with the city’s plan to do so when the ratio of citywide residents testing positive surpasses 2%.
Despite the hazards, for hundreds of thousands of people in the city’s hard-hit restaurant industry, working from home is not an option.
Some of Kim’s colleagues have requested reduced workdays, and some have decided to quit in the face of health concerns that have mounted with indoor dining, according to the manager of the restaurant Bangja.
On average, Kim said, he works 10-hour shifts, five days a week, at the restaurant. He says he is sticking through the long hours to make up for the loss in income that he used to earn from his profession as an independent artist. His artist income has fallen due to less people visiting his gallery. Before the virus hit, Kim worked at restaurants and bars as a side gig. These days, he says, he spends more time at the restaurant than he does at his painting studio, in order to pay for rent, living expenses and the storage where Kim keeps his artwork.
Last year, New York City’s food scene provided some 317,000 jobs and paid $10.7 billion in wages citywide, according to the state comptroller’s report. But the report also shows the number of jobs have dropped by nearly 45% between February and August this year.
Those who were able to keep their jobs in the restaurant industry take home substantially less in tips as a result of a decline in the number of customers. The trend is dreadful for tipped food service workers in New York City, who are paid as little as a minimum wage of $10 per hour in cash and $5 in tips, according to the New York Department of Labor.
Ingrid Calcano, a server at Tom’s Restaurant in Morningside Heights, said the pandemic has cut her tips by almost two-thirds, from an average of $100 to $35 for each seven-hour shift, even as her workload has increased. “People are scared to eat inside,” Calcano said, as she applied hand cream. She said her hands have become “so dry” from the required precautions.
Calcano’s new tasks in the corona era include cleaning the tables using a sponge dipped in liquid disinfectant, and then wiping them again with a spray disinfectant. Calcano notes that she also has to organize individually packaged condiments into small containers, and to raise her voice so customers can hear her through her mask, which can be tiring.
Along with the danger of serving inside, winter also brings a degree of danger to outdoor dining. Anxiety among customers about eating indoors, on top of dropping temperatures, have led restaurants in the city to rush to set up outdoor dining tents or individual plastic bubbles around tables. The problem: diminished airflow and sunlight.
“The problem is enclosed spaces,” Rancaniello said. “As soon as you put a plastic sheet around the tables, forget it.”