Wednesday, October 5 2022
The LA Times recently ran a story featuring Culinary Staffing and our partnership with Cal Savers!
From the piece by Margot Roosevelt:
Kerwin Garin, 64, goes from one gig job to another, working as a chef for a temp agency. He is on seven medications “for various maladies,” he said. And he is postponing a recommended cardiology appointment until he qualifies for Medicare.
Should the Monterey Park resident retire, he doubts that Social Security benefits, together with a modest 401(k) and a pension of just $150 a month from previous jobs, would fully cover his expenses, including rent, utilities, healthcare, student loans, car payments and veterinary bills for his cat.
“I worry about it all the time,” he said. “I just need to keep working.”
As much as possible, Garin takes the bus to his cafeteria gigs across the region to avoid adding to the 83,000 miles on his Chevy Cruze odometer.
His employer, Culinary Staffing Service, has enrolled its 920 workers, more than a quarter of whom are over 50 years old, in CalSavers. The cooks, servers and dishwashers, who work shifts at hospitals, universities and sports arenas, “are very happy we’re giving them a way to save money,” said Chief Operating Officer Jessica Seastead.
The agency had not offered retirement benefits before, she said, given the administrative burden and expense involved in setting up a 401(k) program.
CalSavers, which does not charge for its service, “holds your hand through the process and makes it easy,” she said. Automatic deductions also make saving convenient for workers without the paperwork involved in signing up for a 401(k), she said.
