The problem is not a labor shortage, the problem is low wages.

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

[Johnny2X2X]

1. $15 an hour is not enough

I worked as a fry cook in 1990 for the Summer at a small family owned restaurant and made $7.25 an hour, that was the equivalent of almost $15 an hour in today's money and I still lived with my parents because that was enough to live on then. You work fulltime, you should be able to afford to live in dignity, not squalor.

American workers are demanding this now. Enhanced UE gave people a taste of a middle class lifestyle, people remembered for once what the American Dream is like. That's why the GOP was so against this, they did not want the working poor to get a taste of what life in America is supposed to be like.

And I've mentioned it in other threads, but restaurant workers are moving to warehouse work. Amazon is setting prevailing wages for warehouse work and restaurant workers are finding they can start at Amazon for $15 an hour, move quickly up to $16 or $17 an hour and have some bare minimum for benefits and get 40 hours minimum guaranteed. There are dozen of warehouse locations paying competitive wages to Amazon in my area, they don't even do interviews, you just show up to get hired and start working.

Line cooks at restaurants in my area pay $9-13 an hour on average and the hours are spotty and there are few benefits. Even wait staff right now isn't making a lot in tips so they're opting for something steadier in a warehouse.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Good points! I think that the labor markets have been rolled, w/ people finally getting (even

temporarily) a somewhat decent pay. Why should people settle for less now? Screw those that feel like they can't pay a decent salary when they know full well what it takes for people to live now. In short, these scumbags are asking that people continue to starve and work at the same time for very minimal wages. No more.

[tirebiter]

2. Anybody who drives a forklift should be in a union, IMO.

Unloading a truck demands a high awareness on how the things work to get proper loads and not run into or over anybody. Can’t just wing it.

[LakeArenal]

9. Forklift driver is a coveted position.

Most labor jobs require a great deal of proficiency.

Nice of you to remind us.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. This is exactly the problem in this Country, too many low paying wages, not life sustaining, and

too many billionaires and millionaires chasing around for the few bucks still not in their filthy pockets. Like I said before, it's a disease, that when is enough money enough? It's never enough.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. You know, I'm starting to think it's more the millionaires

Rather than the billionaires. The billionaires run huge corporations, many of those corporations are the best places to work and paywell and have fair benefits. The millionaires that own smaller businesses are the ones seemingly hellbent on squeezing as much as possible out of their workers for as little pay as possible. And many of those billionaires are only billionaires because they own stock in the companies they started and that stock keeps going up in value because they're company is profitable.

The places in my state that are the worst to work for are usually owned by small groups or families. The dangerous factory work they only want to pay $9 to do. The landscaping companies using as unskilled of labor as possible so they can pay $75 a day. There's construction work that has been deregulated and had unions forced out of it so they can pay 1 person well and give them 10 low paid helpers on a job site.

The attitude for too many small business owners has been that owning a small business makes you rich as long as you screw over your workers as much as possible.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. You make very good points which I will now consider in the future, when I make this arguments

w/ friends etc. Thanks for the valid points...

Be safe and take care of yourself.

[IronLionZion]

7. Republicans want people desperate enough to take anything

they don't ever want people to have financial security with benefits.

Dining out in countries with higher minimum wage isn't really that much more expensive than here. Dining in a decent restaurant in Europe is comparable to a large US city like DC. And you don't have to tip. And their workers have their universal healthcare and education programs.

[LakeArenal]

10. Nor an education. Feudal lords want it illegal.

[Mr.Bill]

8. I have a nephew who was a Senior in high school last year.

He worked at the movie theater for minimum wage. When the theater opens back up, he won't be returning. It's not because of unemployment money he has been collecting, he never even filed for it. Since not all jobs closed down, he just went and found another one. He's driving a tow truck and making lots more money, and his hours still let him take community college classes.

But I bet that theater owner will soon be saying he's short-handed because nobody wants to work.

[crud]

11. These are all great points...

just to add to the reasons...folks found other jobs that weren't affected as much by the pandemic. Now when pandemic effected businesses are re-opening, those workers are doing other stuff. They didn't all just wait around on unemployment. Any way you look at it, most folks aren't milking the system, they are living their lives as best they can.

[BobTheSubgenius]

12. Bernie never spoke a greater truth.

The hyper-ascendancy of the employer since the Reagan years has all but squeezed the life out of the middle and working classes. We are sliding downhill into the 1920s (not even counting the Great Depression) and picking up speed. Remember when you could raise a family on the wages from any "respectable" job? My father had a degree in Business Admin, but never had a "big" job.

But....my mother never worked outside the home, we lived in a nice - nowhere near "great" - neighbourhood of teachers, small business owners, accountants, etc, had two cars....and so on. I went through college all on my own hook, and my sister went farther - a Master's from Oxford and by the time I was in my 30s, I was making more money than he ever had through employment. My sister and I were left more than "little something" in his will. NOWHERE NEAR idle rich money, not even the same area code, but still...enough to make a real difference.

Where has that life gone? How many one-middle-income families live like that these days?

[MarcA]

13. All rethug voters should be paid sub-minimum wages and tips.

I am sure they think the recipients of their services would lavishly tip them. Especially, CEOs, lawmakers, professionals, rethug voting pro athletes and union members.