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

[guillaumeb]

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.

[Diamond_Dog]

1. Many of these employers who are whining

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.

[guillaumeb]

2. Exactly. The aggressor, in this case the employer,

becomes the victim.

[crickets]

13. 👆 This.

[GopherGal]

17. And where did we get all these "employers" who flunked Econ 101

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

[guillaumeb]

6. And if any owner whines that they cannot pay more than the minimum,

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]

4. It's really happening around here

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.

[guillaumeb]

7. Well said.

Capitalism is based on exploiting workers.

[Roc2020]

33. This

[doc03]

11. That is reality people are not going to go

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?

[doc03]

16. It isn't really McDonald's that will be affected it

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.

[doc03]

23. Not all the franchise owners are multi millionaires. But

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

[DownriverDem]

29. Those employers

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

[moose65]

24. I see it around here too

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]

30. I didn't think you could quit a job then get unemployment

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]

34. Two things going on with Starbucks

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]

5. Exactly! Well put.

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

[pecosbob]

8. I go through this cycle every few years in hospitality in Las Vegas it seems

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.

[DownriverDem]

28. Disgusting

employers. Too bad folks just don't let those jobs rot.

[quakerboy]

31. Cant

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.

[durablend]

9. And...

They don't want overqualified people that will jump ship at the first better offer they get

[stillcool]

10. for some people

it costs too much money to go to work.

[Nictuku]

12. Exactly!!

[Cuthbert Allgood]

14. Pretty sure we will see a teacher shortage in the fall.

And if not this year, then next year.

[TheRealNorth]

19. That's not a problem for Republicans

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]

20. My wife took a pay cut and a longer commute after her department was shut.

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]

21. Two fold here. I would go back to working 50 a week and not being able to cover basic

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]

22. Apart from the pay issue, considering that we lost tens of thousands of businesses during this

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.

[SunSeeker]

25. Pay a living wage, get living people. nt

[SharonClark]

26. I was at Lowe's this morning and the

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]

27. Average age of workers

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]

32. Pay more. Simple as that. when people

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

[NickB79]

35. Two words. Day care

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]

36. The Wells Fargo branch in my city is closed

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!)