Restaurants in Florida have rolled out a new incentive to gain new employees: a signing bonus.

Social-media users might’ve spotted restaurants’ recent all-caps advertisements on Facebook and Instagram: A “$200 hiring bonus” at Riverside Hotel in downtown Fort Lauderdale, seeking entry-level servers and shift managers. Blocks west on the New River, seafood restaurant Rivertail has offered a “$250 signing bonus,” hoping to fill seven jobs. Around the corner, Mexican eatery Bodega Taqueria y Tequila promises the biggest sign-on bonus of all: $400.

This started happening in March at Rivertail, the seafood restaurant Guerra co-owns with chef Jose Mendin. Being short seven employees forced him to cut dining capacity in half and turn away paying customers. Out of desperation, he offered a signing bonus of $250, any position, with a single string attached: The cash was payable only after 90 days of employment.

To fill critical roles that have been left absent, bonus allocation and other incentive structures are becoming more popular methods to attract new employees. The incentives have appeared across an industry that has struggled to recuperate following the pandemic.

A National Restaurant Association survey released in February found there were 2.5 million fewer restaurant jobs nationwide as of Dec. 1 than during the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association estimates 600,000 Florida workers were laid off and 10,000 restaurants were forced to close. Statistics released by the U.S. Department of Labor in late March showed that fewer than half of those lost jobs have returned.

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