r/science • u/eastbayted • 2d ago

Health Sick food service workers remain top driver of viral foodborne outbreaks in US

https://www.healio.com/news/gastroenterology/20250331/sick-food-service-workers-remain-top-driver-of-viral-foodborne-outbreaks-in-us
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u/nonowords 2d ago

as a restaurant worker, this helps a bit, but the primary driver of people working sick in restaurants isn't them not getting paid if they don't, it's short staffing/management pressuring people to work anyway.

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u/gangler52 2d ago

At a restaurant I used to work at, when the dishwasher called in sick, one of the waitresses would have to wash dishes, which meant she didn't get tips from waiting tables.

So, that was a constant source of drama.

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u/nonowords 2d ago

unless they switch to an hourly wage for that time that is wildly illegal. If they did switch though, then that's funny as hell to me.

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u/DeshTheWraith 2d ago

I can't imagine the hourly wage they pay is anywhere near worth her time to not receive tips.

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u/barontaint 2d ago

I got $18 an hour to wash dishes when I last was doing it to help buddies out post covid. I'm told the going rate has gone up since then. Granted these are big city Cleveland rates though. If that's not worth her time then that place needs to have an honest discussion about BOH vs FOH payrate and potential tip sharing.

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u/DeshTheWraith 1d ago

My sisters ex used to have a job as a dishwasher here in MD. At a senior home not a restaurant, if that makes any difference (also NOT in a city), but he was making $14/hr during that time. I don't know how much a server averages with tips but I imagine in both our states they're doing better than that. Here even $21 would be straddling the poverty line.

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u/nonowords 2d ago

it definitely wouldn't. Them having to do boh work for boh pay for a shift and it causing drama is why I find it funny.

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u/Piogre 2d ago

When I delivered pizza my wage when I was out on deliveries was a dollar less than when I was in the store. Literally the time elapsed between checking out for a deliveries and checking back in was tallied up and docked appropriately from my paycheck.

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u/Synapse7777 2d ago

My son just got a job at a local papa johns delivering pizza and after his first day he said he was required to clock out when he made a delivery. He didn't return for a 2nd day.

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u/doublebubbler2120 2d ago

I have a friend who worked for one in Conroe or Spring, Texas, and they get paid $2.35 while on delivery. Min wage for tipped workers.

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u/worldspawn00 2d ago

Damn, when I worked a papa John's in college (about 15 years ago) we got state minimum (5.50 iirc) for the entire shift, plus our tips, plus a sliding scale commission on the deliveries themselves, 10% of your first 10, then it would go up to 15% when you hit 20 in a shift, it paid really well on busy nights.

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u/guff1988 2d ago

Only $1? At Pizza Hut it was 4.25 while on the road.

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u/gangler52 2d ago

I have no idea how they handled that. Honestly, never occurred to me to ask.

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u/unclefisty 1d ago

My anecdotal experience has been that restaurants are rampant with wage theft by employers, especially since many of the people working there are not well off and have no idea of their actual rights.

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u/HaloGuy381 15h ago

Or even if they know them, they lack the means to hire a lawyer to fight or to bring a case to the proper agencies. Even if the lawyer is on contingency, the time involved to gather information and find allies is more than people barely putting bread on the table can muster.

Also, not quite the same, but retail at least attracts a -lot- of workers with a wide variety of disabilities (which are often not formally categorized because to declare it is a giant sign saying “find an excuse to fire me”), some of which may not interfere with work but might make it very difficult to fight such a situation. Throw in how hard it is to find another employer for said people, and just letting the wage theft happen becomes an understandable reaction.

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u/Dashiepants 2d ago

Even if they did pay an hourly wage it would get eaten up by the taxes owed on tips, working a boh shift and foh shifts on the same paycheck means that you’re boh pay is going straight towards your end of year tax bill.

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u/Splash_Attack 2d ago edited 2d ago

as a restaurant worker, this helps a bit, but the primary driver of people working sick in restaurants isn't them not getting paid if they don't

This would not be an issue if there was mandated paid sick leave, because it would be paid.

You might now be thinking "no, you don't understand, these are shift workers" but that's a reflection of poor labour protections in the US. In many other countries statuatory sick pay or whatever the equivalent thing is includes people on zero hour contracts and casual arrangements.

You might think "well they would just retaliate against people who took it" except that using your statuatory sick leave is also protected. So if your employer treats you differently for taking it they are in a world of trouble.

It doesn't perfectly protect against all problems that might arise, but if the US just copy-pasted the sick pay laws from any other common law country whole-cloth it would solve a huge array of problems.

edit: I am illiterate and read "isn't" as "is". I've left the comment as is, but ignore the first paragraph. The bit about protection against retaliation is still valid. It's only possible for managers to apply pressure in that way because of a lack of protection against it, and there is a clear model for the kind of protection needed.

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u/PiotrekDG 2d ago

The dumbest part is that the restaurant owner still most likely loses more productivity overall when a sick employee comes in with a disease and infects their coworkers.

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u/Amberatlast 2d ago

Seriously, every kitchen has you working elbow to elbow with the same people in a stuffy room for hours on end. A cold can rip through a place like that so fast, and none of them have staff to cover two call-outs on the same day.

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u/Rocktopod 2d ago

Not if everyone just comes in and works while sick instead of staying home.

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u/PiotrekDG 2d ago

I mean, that might depend on the role, but presenteeism has negative consequences in general. Just the loss of productivity and mental health burdens might be enough to offset perceived benefits.

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u/Opening_Newspaper_97 2d ago

Ya calling out is just gonna get your coworkers treating you like you're a dickhead especially managers/boss

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u/SlothBling 2d ago

It’s one of the inherent issues of the service industry that I can’t really imagine a workaround for; no one should have to come in on their day off, but no workplace schedules extra staff to loiter around on property performing no labor on the off chance that someone calls out and they become needed. Honestly, I really feel like most of the luxuries afforded to workers in “civilized” countries must only be relevant to white collar workers or society would immediately grind to a halt. When Scandinavians take their summer vacations, who produces the food and provides public services?

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u/Splash_Attack 2d ago

When Scandinavians take their summer vacations, who produces the food and provides public services?

It's not all at the same time. People are entitled to a few weeks of holidays consecutively, somewhere within in a three month summer period. Businesses just plan ahead and make sure their staff don't all take it at the same time.

Or sometimes they do the opposite and do all take it at once, and simply close for a month. How many businesses are there that people cannot live without for one month?

Many businesses also take on some seasonal staff in the summer if they want to stay open. It isn't really that complicated, it's not like summer comes as a surprise to anyone.

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u/sfurbo 2d ago

It’s one of the inherent issues of the service industry that I can’t really imagine a workaround for; no one should have to come in on their day off, but no workplace schedules extra staff to loiter around on property performing no labor on the off chance that someone calls out and they become needed.

There's loads of reasonable solutions: Make the pay to go in on your day off worth it, pay people a certain amount to be on call, or have enough staff that a normal amount of illness takes it from "OK" to "busy". They all cost the business money, so there needs to be some external push, either from legislation or from unions, and they will increase prices.

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u/rileyoneill 2d ago

There can also be companies that offer “fill in” services for restaurants. Like they have dishwashers who work for them. If you run a restaurant and your dishwasher is sick you call up this company and request a dishwasher and one shows up and fills in. You pay the company, not the laborer (the company pays the laborer). If a city has hundreds restaurants it’s likely a common scenario where a dishwasher is sick in at least a few of them on a regular basis. This would be more expensive than paying a regular full time employee but at least they will likely never be short staffed and could fill positions with a very short notice.

If you work as a dishwasher for one of these companies you will probably work daily, just at a different restaurant every day. Your workload will not be agreed between you and the restaurant you are working for at the day but between you and your employer, your employer will work out the details with the restaurant. So if the restaurant owner can’t just ask you to do a bunch of extras because their agreement is with the company that employs you.

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u/sfurbo 2d ago

That's a really good option I hadn't considered, thank you for mentioning it.

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u/funAmbassador 1d ago

Yessss!!! I’ve always fantasized about there being some kind of “food workers guild” or something. With services and resources like this to help us out. I love this industry, but man, it can be so cruel and unfair

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u/Vivecs954 2d ago

It seems like this is only a problem in the us

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u/Sgt-Spliff- 1d ago

Which is why they literally asked what other countries do. What do other countries do when shift workers call off last minute?

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u/Vivecs954 1d ago

They pay them more, they have union representation, they have higher prices and are open less so less staff needed.

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u/Sgt-Spliff- 1d ago

Most of what you said doesn't address what they do when shift workers call off though. Like if you run a coffee shop and your barista calls in sick. How does the coffee shop operate that day?

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u/leitmot 1d ago

Maybe it’s ok for the coffee shop not to operate for one day

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u/Sgt-Spliff- 1d ago

Is that what they do in Europe? Or just anywhere with strong workers rights? Genuinely asking anyone who knows

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u/theaxolotlgod 1d ago

My husband was sick once as a server, threw up in the back and let the manager know he had to leave. Manager said no, husband pushed back, and manager told him “I mean, I could just say I had to send you home cause you were hungover and not doing your job”. This was one of our better managers too, but this kind of behavior is so standard in the industry.

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u/funAmbassador 1d ago

You hit the nail on the head on that one for me. I’m really happy and grateful to have a chef who takes me calling out seriously, and has never guilted me. BUT SO MANY OTHERS IN MANAGEMENT HAVE!!

The anxiety I get from just the thought of calling out bc my cramps are too painful, or I’m running a fever, makes my stomach turn. I HATE HATE HATE having to defend myself about how well my body can function