Putting our community and coworkers first

Reacting to multiple government-mandated changes to our business operations while balancing the longevity of the business and our employees' well-being has been difficult. At the same time, we have tried to balance the proper use of stimulus money, employee burnout, and the safety of our coworkers and customers. One of the ways we have attempted to balance these factors is through a change in compensation strategy. Due to the most recent restrictions enacted on July 13, which we respect, part of the compensation change was to no longer accept tips at any of our locations. After running business models based on 50% patio service we found that our employees would be making less than what they would on unemployment, specifically the $600 in weekly federal pandemic assistance. Tips are an uncontrollable variable that may inadvertently disqualify an employee from receiving the federal pandemic relief money, leaving an employee making more than state unemployment but less than what they would have made by qualifying for the federal pandemic assistance. Therefore we made the decision to put our employees' financial well-being first by ensuring our scheduling and pay practices to guarantee their qualification for a limited amount of state unemployment money, which qualifies them to receive the full $600 in weekly federal pandemic relief money in addition to their Bosque wages and state unemployment money.

Since we are trying to maintain this level of federal financial assistance for our employees, we are not currently accepting tips. In lieu, we are accepting donations to benefit our community in the following way. We have been listening and discussing as an executive team over the past few months and have decided to develop a Diversity in Brewing Scholarship which all donations will be allocated towards. As we announced in our Employee Town Hall earlier this month, Bosque will match these donations 100%. This scholarship fund will provide brewing education opportunities specifically for individuals from disenfranchised groups including, but not limited to race, sexual orientation, physical ability, or age. This builds on our commitment to disenfranchised groups including our mission at our sister restaurant, Restoration Pizza, and the Spacelion for Life Foundation in partnership with NMSU.

We believe this plan puts our community and employees first, allowing employees to benefit from federal assistance while limiting the funds used directly from State unemployment. It also allows us to spread out shifts among more employees, keeping our employees working minimum hours in record temperatures while limiting their personal exposure to the public. This is a temporary compensation plan and as factors outside of our control change, we will adapt and change with them. Throughout this pandemic, we have strived to maintain transparency with our employees, specifically in our compensation change and plan for the scholarship fund, and we commit to maintaining transparency in the future.

Bosque remains committed to supporting the needs of our coworkers, customers, and community to our best ability in the face of COVID-19.