After the Meltdown

SONIA BAUTISTA WAS LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK in one of the most expensive regions of the country when the coronavirus hit, and her finances went from bad to disastrous. Her employer, the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, a four-star luxury property owned by Marriott, told her that business had slowed and it didn’t need her anymore, just when her husband had his job in a hotel cafeteria cut from five days a week to two. “I don’t know how I’m going to pay the rent,” says Bautista.

Workers and businesses across the country are in similarly dire straits as consumers practice social