She made her career working in restaurants. Then the pandemic happened

After about four years at The Sports Bar, a neighborhood restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mandi Steed put in her two weeks notice this past spring.

It wasn't an easy decision. Steed, who is 29, had been working in restaurants for over a decade, and she was a fan of this one in particular. She loved her co-workers, and she had built up a rapport with customers, many of whom came in regularly. But in the past year, things fell apart. In the early stages of the pandemic, her hours were cut by a third. They started to come back last fall, but since the restaurant was operating at limited capacity, she was making less in tips.