On the Strip, that shows up in tips and hours. Joe Spica, a bellman at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and a Culinary Workers Union shop steward, said visitor totals may not have collapsed, but spending has. “They’re not tipping as much,” he said.
For Spica, a father of three, the impact is immediate. “Tips have gone ridiculously down,” he said. “And then when I go to the grocery store, every single thing I buy has somehow gone up.”
Extra shifts at hotels and restaurants have begun to disappear. That’s how slowdowns start, said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226: not with big layoffs, but with vanishing hours that hit part-timers and on-call staff first.