for The New York Times: Laid off, rehired, laid off again, and now without a weekly $600 boost. by José A. Alvarado Jr.

Media News

for The New York Times: Laid off, rehired, laid off again, and now without a weekly $600 boost.

josé a. alvarado jr.

Aug 9, 2020

Location: Bushwick, Brooklyn

After coronavirus-related lockdowns forced dining establishments in New York to close in March, Hannah Lane, 24, was laid off as a server in a popular Gramercy Park restaurant where she made about $60,000 a year.
Her girlfriend, also a restaurant worker, was laid off on the same day. Both applied for unemployment benefits, and although her girlfriend began receiving them right away, Ms. Lane’s payments did not arrive for more than two months. They struggled to scrape together the $1,400 rent for their room in a Bushwick, Brooklyn, apartment that they share with another roommate, and mostly subsisted on rice and beans to cut food costs.
Then, in early July, as New York allowed restaurants to open for indoor dining, Ms. Lane was recalled to her job.
“I went back into work, clocked in, went back on payroll, the whole nine yards,” she said.
She had spent just one day there when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo reversed course and prohibited dining inside restaurants. Ms. Lane was laid off again, and found herself back on unemployment and looking for work. Her search continues. And now, without the $600-a-week federal supplement that expired last week, her unemployment pay will come to $401 after taxes.
“It’s really disheartening to watch Congress bungle this,” she said. “The taxes we’re paying on our unemployment checks pays their salaries. So we’re paying them while they decide which crumbs to give us. We’re totally powerless.”

Photographed for The New York Times' Business Section, with words by Gillian Friedman.

Laid off, rehired, laid off again, and now without a weekly $600 boost.

2,039

José A. Alvarado Jr.

Also by José A. Alvarado Jr. —

for The New York Times: Former Rikers Employees Are Charged With Smuggling in Contraband

for Seven Days VT: 'Safe Haven'

for The New York Times: Lawmaker Is Left With ‘Lifetime Trauma’ as Attacker Pleads Guilty

for The New York Times: Health Insurers’ Lucrative, Little-Known Alliance: 5 Takeaways

for The New York Times: Baruch College, an Upward-Mobility Machine

for The New Yorker: The Haunted Juror

for Bloomberg Originals:

for Bloomberg: Guyana Is Trying to Keep Its Oil Blessing From Becoming a Curse

for The New York Times: Audit Finds Fatal Lapses in Mental Health Program Meant to Curb Violence

for The Wall Street Journal: America’s Biggest Bank Is Growing the Old-Fashioned Way: Branches

for The New York Times: The Young Black Conservative Who Grew Up With, and Rejects, D.E.I.

for The New York Times: How Rikers Island Became New York’s Largest Mental Institution

for The New York Times: This Venezuelan Family Won Asylum. Days Later, They Lost It.

for Southern Foodways Alliance: Offsides Fowl

for Anglers Journal: End of an Era

for Bloomberg: ‘Market’s Wrong, I’m Not’: Mike Mayo Loves Playing a Provocateur

for Brooklyn Vegan: Glassjaw celebrated 30 years with career-spanning Brooklyn shows

for The New York Times: Kendra’s Law Was Meant to Prevent Violence. It Failed Hundreds of Times.

for The New York Times: A New Push to Improve Mental Health Care for Homeless New Yorkers

for Bloomberg: The Other Side of Greenwich: Hunger Among the Hedge Funds

for CULTURED Magazine: At 25, Artist Oscar yi Hou Has Already Had a Solo Museum Show—And Written a Memoir

TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2023

for The New York Times: Behind 94 Acts of Shocking Violence, Years of Glaring Mistakes

for The New Yorker: What Will It Take to Win Brooklyn’s First Majority-Asian District?