Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

guillaumeb

(42,649 posts)
Tue May 4, 2021, 01:12 PM May 2021

I see many articles where businesses are complaining of a shortage of workers.

In reality, what we are seeing is a shortage of pay for the work expected. It is that simple. The issue is not that unemployed workers make too much on unemployment, it is that employment pays so little.

36 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
I see many articles where businesses are complaining of a shortage of workers. (Original Post) guillaumeb May 2021 OP
Many of these employers who are whining Diamond_Dog May 2021 #1
Exactly. The aggressor, in this case the employer, guillaumeb May 2021 #2
👆 This. crickets May 2021 #13
And where did we get all these "employers" who flunked Econ 101 GopherGal May 2021 #17
This message was self-deleted by its author hamsterjill May 2021 #3
And if any owner whines that they cannot pay more than the minimum, guillaumeb May 2021 #6
It's really happening around here bcool May 2021 #4
Well said. guillaumeb May 2021 #7
This Roc2020 May 2021 #33
That is reality people are not going to go doc03 May 2021 #11
This message was self-deleted by its author hamsterjill May 2021 #15
It isn't really McDonald's that will be affected it doc03 May 2021 #16
This message was self-deleted by its author hamsterjill May 2021 #18
Not all the franchise owners are multi millionaires. But doc03 May 2021 #23
Those employers DownriverDem May 2021 #29
I see it around here too moose65 May 2021 #24
I didn't think you could quit a job then get unemployment doc03 May 2021 #30
Two things going on with Starbucks Ms. Toad May 2021 #34
Exactly! Well put. KPN May 2021 #5
I go through this cycle every few years in hospitality in Las Vegas it seems pecosbob May 2021 #8
Disgusting DownriverDem May 2021 #28
Cant quakerboy May 2021 #31
And... durablend May 2021 #9
for some people stillcool May 2021 #10
Exactly!! Nictuku May 2021 #12
Pretty sure we will see a teacher shortage in the fall. Cuthbert Allgood May 2021 #14
That's not a problem for Republicans TheRealNorth May 2021 #19
My wife took a pay cut and a longer commute after her department was shut. NNadir May 2021 #20
Two fold here. I would go back to working 50 a week and not being able to cover basic LizBeth May 2021 #21
Apart from the pay issue, considering that we lost tens of thousands of businesses during this niyad May 2021 #22
Pay a living wage, get living people. nt SunSeeker May 2021 #25
I was at Lowe's this morning and the SharonClark May 2021 #26
Average age of workers DownriverDem May 2021 #27
Pay more. Simple as that. when people Roc2020 May 2021 #32
Two words. Day care NickB79 May 2021 #35
The Wells Fargo branch in my city is closed leftieNanner May 2021 #36

Diamond_Dog

(34,533 posts)
1. Many of these employers who are whining
Tue May 4, 2021, 01:19 PM
May 2021

Want to pay peanuts for a job working with the public with very few if any safety precautions and very little if any healthcare benefits or paid sick days DURING A PANDEMIC.

GopherGal

(2,400 posts)
17. And where did we get all these "employers" who flunked Econ 101
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:12 PM
May 2021

Supply and demand curves, guys, google it.
Then consider changing your wage offered.

Response to guillaumeb (Original post)

guillaumeb

(42,649 posts)
6. And if any owner whines that they cannot pay more than the minimum,
Tue May 4, 2021, 01:25 PM
May 2021

the response should be that they are operating under a flawed business model. Jeff Bezos could certainly afford to pay his warehouse workers $20/hour and benefits.
He chooses to not pay them a living wage so he can get even richer, even faster.

bcool

(227 posts)
4. It's really happening around here
Tue May 4, 2021, 01:24 PM
May 2021

I see the effects of this all over the place here in the St. Louis area - Help Wanted signs on almost every restaurant.

It's probably true that the extra unemployment amounts are affecting this, because the regular unemployment + the extra unemployment works out to a 40 hour week @ $15/hour. It's human nature for a lot of people to say "why should I go to work for less than that?"

But, you're right...the news media and restaurant owners aren't looking at the problem as them underpaying their workers - all they want to complain about is the extra unemployment ruining their businesses. Boo, hoo - maybe pay a better wage and see what happens.

Although, even if they paid their workers $15/hour, they still wouldn't be making as much as they do on unemployment because most of these jobs are less than 40 hours a week.

We won't see this change until the extra unemployment runs out in September and people are forced back to work in order to make more money. What a sad commentary on the service sector, and how it takes advantage of the lower end of the labor force.

doc03

(36,591 posts)
11. That is reality people are not going to go
Tue May 4, 2021, 01:31 PM
May 2021

back to work unless their unemployment and supplement runs out or Employers pay a lot more. Employers have to make a profit or close their doors. If they raise wages they have to make it up with less service or higher prices. Then there are those of us on a fixed income, do I have to get a job at McDonald's at 73?

Response to doc03 (Reply #11)

doc03

(36,591 posts)
16. It isn't really McDonald's that will be affected it
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:03 PM
May 2021

is the franchise owners that get caught in between. A friend of mine owned a gas station he sometimes sold gas at a loss but BP got their money. BP set the price he paid for gas and the price he had to sell gas for. He told me this story that while the oil companies were testifying in Congress denying there was any such thing as price fixing he was called 7 times that very day to change his prices.

Response to doc03 (Reply #16)

doc03

(36,591 posts)
23. Not all the franchise owners are multi millionaires. But
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:29 PM
May 2021

what does the CEO of McDonads make? $18 million!

DownriverDem

(6,621 posts)
29. Those employers
Tue May 4, 2021, 03:05 PM
May 2021

need to take less. The average age of a minimum wage worker is 27. I hope those businesses do close.

moose65

(3,295 posts)
24. I see it around here too
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:42 PM
May 2021

Almost all restaurants have Hiring signs out front or on their digital signs. Some restaurants have changed their schedules to be open fewer hours. For example, one of the Starbucks locations around here has started opening at 1:30 pm on some days (ridiculous, but I guess they didn't have a full crew).

However, people who weren't working last year can't draw unemployment, can they? If someone was in high school last year and is now in college but they didn't have a job last year, they can't draw, can they? I am pretty much ignorant of unemployment law.

It IS sad that service workers have had to bear the brunt of the pandemic. I don't know what the solution is.

doc03

(36,591 posts)
30. I didn't think you could quit a job then get unemployment
Tue May 4, 2021, 03:11 PM
May 2021

but a McDonalds worker told me that if you say you are afraid of getting COVID you can? I know many that are still working don't believe in getting handouts and they are bitter because of the others that won't work. They have to work harder because they are short handed.

Ms. Toad

(35,463 posts)
34. Two things going on with Starbucks
Tue May 4, 2021, 03:56 PM
May 2021

Both COVID-related (but not unable to hire-related).

They changed ther staffing to block staffing (i.e. a group of people who all rotate in and out at the same time).

As a domino effect - hours are subject to change at a moment's notice.

The policy is that anyone who shares a shift with someone who tests positive has to stay home for 2 weeks. Shifting to block staffing meant that only one block of employees was impacted (prior to the shift, employees might work with up to half of the entire store's staff in the relevant time period).

But shifting to blocks also means that there isn't much alternative to cuting hours when a block of employees is quarantined (because going back to a floating crew would risk infecting even more.

My daughter's store is just back to full hours after 2 weeks when she couldn't work because they closed at no later than 4 PM (and she also works 3rd shift at Amazon - so those are her sleeping hours).

KPN

(16,078 posts)
5. Exactly! Well put.
Tue May 4, 2021, 01:24 PM
May 2021

And the frigging GOP wants to cut unemployment and welfare so more billionaires can be made from slave wage labor.

pecosbob

(7,904 posts)
8. I go through this cycle every few years in hospitality in Las Vegas it seems
Tue May 4, 2021, 01:28 PM
May 2021

Workers are laid off and fired and are displaced to other work sectors or other locales. In every down turn work responsibilities are consolidated into fewer jobs. Succeeding workers are forced to accept more difficult work for the same pay or less. Positions on crews are left unfilled forcing workers to assume greater workloads and tolerate constantly changing schedules.

quakerboy

(14,131 posts)
31. Cant
Tue May 4, 2021, 03:32 PM
May 2021

It not that workers wouldt like to let bad jobs with poor pay sit unfilled.

Its that in America, workers too often have the option of poor pay or becoming homeless.

TheRealNorth

(9,629 posts)
19. That's not a problem for Republicans
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:16 PM
May 2021

They are all for allowing people without a degree being allowed to teach. Particularly if it allows RW nutjobs to teach history, economics, and shop classes.

NNadir

(34,575 posts)
20. My wife took a pay cut and a longer commute after her department was shut.
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:19 PM
May 2021

Happily the job she found was far more interested than the one she lost.

She was looking for several months. And had several interviews without an offer. She was very nervous.

The job that selected her told her that they had close to 1000 applicants.

LizBeth

(10,783 posts)
21. Two fold here. I would go back to working 50 a week and not being able to cover basic
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:21 PM
May 2021

living expenses that I have cut to the bare bone and I tell you, the last couple customer service jobs especially front desk at an hotel, I was so aggressively threatened a handful of times by middle age and old white men my age that I had phone in hand to call 911 and thinking of escape. At 11 an hour, that is hard to accept. An old woman threatened -physically trying to take care of the customer and resolve, the best I can, fearing for my safety.

I am rethinking that there has to be a better way.

niyad

(119,625 posts)
22. Apart from the pay issue, considering that we lost tens of thousands of businesses during this
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:24 PM
May 2021

pandemic, I don't believe in a worker shortage for one minute. Just more of the reichwing spin machine whining about people getting some unemployment assistance.

SharonClark

(10,310 posts)
26. I was at Lowe's this morning and the
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:57 PM
May 2021

manager was taping an ad in the garden center. Says they’re paying $15 an hour. Popeyes has a sign saying it’s hiring at $14 an hour.

There are “hiring” signs on a lot of businesses, not just restaurants.

DownriverDem

(6,621 posts)
27. Average age of workers
Tue May 4, 2021, 02:58 PM
May 2021

I see where some folks like to say that teenagers don't need to make a living wage. That's when I point out that the average age of minimum wage workers is 27. Those folks totally miss the point. Everyone should be making more!

Roc2020

(1,703 posts)
32. Pay more. Simple as that. when people
Tue May 4, 2021, 03:35 PM
May 2021

do not have to take jobs that pay slave wages or put up with abuse then employers must adjust. And adjust they will.

NickB79

(19,596 posts)
35. Two words. Day care
Tue May 4, 2021, 04:13 PM
May 2021

The Covid Recession hit working women harder than any group. When day cares and schools shut down, they stayed home.

Now, there is still a scarcity of daycare unopened. There are still millions of kids in remote learning classes.

Millions of women have no choice but to stay home right now.

leftieNanner

(15,674 posts)
36. The Wells Fargo branch in my city is closed
Tue May 4, 2021, 04:15 PM
May 2021

Because they don't have adequate staff. I ran into the manager and asked her why the bank was closed and she told me she couldn't find workers. I didn't ask her - but tellers are usually paid close to minimum wage - in Oregon that's $12 per hour.

I wouldn't work for that wage! Housing costs here are going up. Maybe the bank needs to pay better. (We all remember Katie Porter and her white board questioning Jamie Dimon!)

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»I see many articles where...