Employers: If You Want Workers, Pay A Living Wage

[appalachiablue]

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- Employers: If You Want Workers, Pay A Living Wage. It’s not that people don’t want to work — it’s that they don’t want to work for so little. By Rebekah Entralgo, Otherwords, May 12, 2021. -Excerpts, Ed.:

The sudden shift from “we love our essential workers” to “they’re living off the government dole” seemingly happened overnight. Local media coverage has been filled with stories of business owners lamenting that they are unable to fill positions as economies reopen. “We are short-staffed. Please be patient with the staff who did show up. Nobody wants to work anymore,” reads a sign outside a McDonalds drive-thru window in Texas, according to a viral internet video..

The Wall Street Journal reports a record 8.1 million job openings across the country.
But it’s not that people don’t want to work — it’s that they don’t want to work for so little.

Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments who raised the starting wage at his company to $70,000, recently said he gets 300 applications for every opening.
It turns out there’s no “labor shortage” — just a shortage of people who will work for starvation wages, especially during a pandemic that’s hit low-wage workers the hardest. What we are witnessing now is a reckoning and reassessment of the future of work.
But rather than think critically about why so many workers are hesitant to return, some pundits and right-wing politicians blame unemployment benefits.

President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan provides an extra $300 a week for those out of work during the pandemic. The GOP now wants to take that away.

Some Republican governors have already announced they will cut unemployment benefits in order to force more people back to work. If Republicans truly wanted to abide by their free market ideals, they would recognize that in order to stay competitive, employers must adapt to the demands of the market and pay their workers what they are worth. But, they’re opting to slash unemployment benefits, oppose significant increases in the federal minimum wage, and have the government subsidize businesses by forcing employees to rely on food stamps assistance to get by. Same as it ever was.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the reality that our economy is dependent on exploitation. As the virus spread, many workers watched their bosses prioritize profit over the lives of employees, who risked their health and lives to work frontline jobs during a pandemic that killed over 500,000 people in this country. While these low-wage workers braved the pandemic, their CEOs cashed in.
It’s been well over a decade since Congress raised the federal minimum wage. If the minimum wage had increased at the same rate as Wall Street bonuses since 1985, it would be worth $44 an hour today.

With all of this in mind, would you put your life on the line for $7.25 an hour?

.. Full article,
https://otherwords.org/employers-if-you-want-workers-pay-a-living-wage/

[Dream Girl]

1. The ability to pay poverty level minus wages has long been built Inyo plans.

Many, many companies assume they will pay $7.50 per hour and no benefits because they only hire part time to avoid paying benefits.. The pandemic has eff’d up their game.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. We are now experiencing what it was like in the aftermath

of the Black Death in the 14th Century. So many peasants died, that those surviving refused to be serfs any longer and demanded decent wages. Naturally, the powers that be were enraged and tried to fight back, but they needed those peasants.

When I first entered the work force I earned minimum wage, $1.25/hour. A while later it was raised to $1.65/hour. I lived in Tucson, AZ, even now a relatively low cost of living place. I could live on that. Just. I couldn't get ahead, I couldn't save anything, but I could live.

The current minimum isn't worth as much, and many of those making that are trying to support a family. We would all be so very much better off if those at the bottom could afford to live a decent life.

[Hoyt]

3. OK, not a career, but saw a sign at McDonald's today "Starting Pay $14."

That’s a big change in what I have seen in my area before. Not saying it’s great pay, especially for more than a summer or something. And, of course, there might have been a catch.

[cstanleytech]

5. People need both pay and hours though and the majority of restaurants only want to give people

a few hours a day at peak time.

[aggiesal]

4. Supply & Demand 101: Competitive Wages. ...

When there are more applicants than jobs, workers compete for jobs and wages decrease.
When there are more jobs than applicants, businesses compete for workers and wages must increase.

Owners struggling to hire, are trying to operate under the old paradigm of hiring as cheaply as possible.

For restaurants, let's get rid of the $2.13/hr. minimum wage for wait staff and pay them a living wage without mandatory tips.
We will tip anyway, this is our culture.

If a business can't afford to pay employees a living wage, then their business plan doesn't work.

I don't mind paying a little extra if I know the employees are getting paid a living wage.

[cstanleytech]

6. Even increasing the restaurant workers pay will not help if they are only given a few hours a day.

No, what we need is to redo the tax code and link companies tax rate to the number of employees 19 and older that they have and the number of those that are earning less than 200% above the federal poverty level.
The more employees they have that are earning below that 200% area the higher the taxes they pay.
The more that earn over that then the lower they pay.
A simple carrot and stick approach.
Edit: And temp as well as contract workers should count as employees if more than 5% or more of the employees is made up of them.

[aggiesal]

8. The way I see it, if their employees don't work fulltime ...

they're not getting paid a living wage.
You're not living if you have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
You're just surviving.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. someone i knew before he went to a dark side would have called these slave wages.

[mitch96]

9. "If You Want Workers, Pay A Living Wage". It always amazes me when people complain about

people being "lazy" and wanting to sit on the porch and collect unemployment. When I bring up the topic of a living wage their eyes just glaze over and act like beyond the scope of their little brain... Ask them if they could be a single parent paying for child care, rent, food, clothes, insurance, medical bills all on minimum wage......Ahhhh no. If the employer can't exist by paying slave wages then they are in the wrong business..
rant mode off......uffda
m