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It's time for America to get back to work. This isn't an issue the Fed can fix alone via rate policy. Everywhere I go and everyone I talk to needs employees. Fast food places are offering starting wages at $13 to $15 per hour even in states where the minimum wage is far less. Summer help is being offered $18 per hour to work at jobs that formerly paid minimum wage. And every single contractor I know is desperate for workers offering $20+ per hour for people with little or no experience. Many employers are also offering generous signing bonuses. Yet, crickets, the jobs remain unfilled, and many able-bodied workers sit home and collect unemployment benefits that often are far greater than the wages they replaced. This is impacting goods and services in nearly every sector causing inflation. In addition, the stimulus payments sent to many people who did not need the money, including PPP loans to certain "businesses," was highly wasteful and has sent our deficit deeper into the danger zone. The unemployment supplements and stimulus has moved from an emergency intervention in a crisis to a mostly political move by both parties when the former president opened the flood gates with the parting $2,000 stimulus offer. It is now is being used as a policy leverage tool to reshape our economic structure attaching itself to larger goals such as guaranteed minimum income, pay equity, and closing the wealth gap. The focus needs to shift to getting people back to work! The US, and the world, cannot afford to allow this situation to continue any longer.
Vaccines are now widely available throughout the US. The country, and the world, needs to move quickly to reopen our economies. Governments need to take their foot off the stimulus accelerator. In the US, any stimulus offered at this point should be in the form of tax credits on the 2021 return directly related to the number of months one has worked this year such as 12 months x $200 = $2,400 tax credit. Those who were classified as essential workers could be given more. Young people and those in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are critically needed as many in their 60s and 70s who are nearing or have reached retirement age will be exiting the workforce further exacerbating the lack of workers problem.
It's time for America to get back to work. This isn't an issue the Fed can fix alone via rate policy. Everywhere I go and everyone I talk to needs employees. Fast food places are offering starting wages at $13 to $15 per hour even in states where the minimum wage is far less. Summer help is being offered $18 per hour to work at jobs that formerly paid minimum wage. And every single contractor I know is desperate for workers offering $20+ per hour for people with little or no experience. .
I actually really like this. Employers are desperate but apparently not desperate enough to pay reasonable wages. In this society $15 dollars per hour isn't enough to live on. Employers have had it good for too long. If they are really desperate they should take maybe a million from their salary and pay some employees.
It is my sincere hope that this goes on for a long time and forces wages way higher.
I actually really like this. Employers are desperate but apparently not desperate enough to pay reasonable wages. In this society $15 dollars per hour isn't enough to live on. Employers have had it good for too long. If they are really desperate they should take maybe a million from their salary and pay some employees.
Wait a minute, Comrade Arya. Wasn't all the talk in the past two years about getting the minimum wage up to $15/hour so that it was a liveable wage?
Now you're telling us that $15/hour isn't a liveable wage. So what is? $20/hour? $30/hour? $50? $100?
And, by the way, minimum wage was not meant to be adult wage. Minimum wage jobs were for high school students and college students (maybe) earning spending money. What we have now, instead, is low-skill adults, and some senior citizens, who are depending upon those jobs since they cannot fill in higher-skill positions due to age or skill. Chalk this disconnect up to each individual circumstance.
In 2017, minimum wage jobs only made up 2.3% of all jobs nationally, so MW is not the real issue. MW was never meant to be a liveable wage, i.e., sole income for adults.
In 2017, minimum wage jobs only made up 2.3% of all jobs nationally, so MW is not the real issue.
From some simple Googling, it appears that, while the number of workers who are paid the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) is a small percentage of the workforce, the number of workers who are paid $15 per hour or less is about 28 percent of the total US workforce. Talk of raising the minimum wage to $15 (or more) will directly impact many more people than the few percent making the absolute minimum.
There are also some indications that there are multiple reasons for people to not return to minimum wage jobs aside from the additional federal unemployment benefits. Reportedly, some former minimum wage workers have found that they can make more money in the gig economy.
I actually really like this. Employers are desperate but apparently not desperate enough to pay reasonable wages. In this society $15 dollars per hour isn't enough to live on. Employers have had it good for too long. If they are really desperate they should take maybe a million from their salary and pay some employees.
It is my sincere hope that this goes on for a long time and forces wages way higher.
I actually really like this. Employers are desperate but apparently not desperate enough to pay reasonable wages. In this society $15 dollars per hour isn't enough to live on. Employers have had it good for too long. If they are really desperate they should take maybe a million from their salary and pay some employees.
You have to keep in mind these employers have to compete. They will pay more as long as in doing so they are still price competitive with their competition. If competitor X has somehow kept it's workers on at a much lower salary then it will be much harder for company Y to pay it's workers at several dollars an hour more and still be competitive. There is a massive learning curve here for the companies. Eventually things will likely even out but not all at once.
And yes, I am sure many on the left who have been pushing the "livable wage" agenda for the last couple of years are very happy to see the federal unemployment checks on top of the state checks continue for just the reasons you outline. Of course in the end nobody will win and everything will be the same. Entry level minimum wage jobs will be just that. Making $15 an hour won't mean what it used to when your rent and everything else you need to live on has increased 10-15% over a couple years time.
It's time for America to get back to work. Everywhere I go and everyone I talk to needs employees...and many able-bodied workers sit home and collect unemployment benefits that often are far greater than the wages they replaced.
Paying people at the lower end of the scale higher wages than are economically viable with yield several things in the medium and longer terms - some of this is already happening.
1. Consumer level price inflation.
2. Lower overall employment for the cadre.
3. More pressure on employers to automate.
Just an anecdote. A friend owns a large printing business. For a melange of reasons from liability to better/more accurate job performance/less damage/waste to no-overtime and ultimately much lower costs...............he's reducing the average daily worker count per martial handling/ink weigh up/other pre-press tasks from 13 to 1 or 2.
Repeat that same logic many thousands of times - many businesses that are able to automate will.
As with so many things, the minimum wage issue doesn't get fully thought-out before it gets implemented.
The government is currently in competition with small businesses for workers. By paying an ongoing 'stimulus', in addition to unemployment ... many service sector people find they make more money by NOT working, than by returning to the workplace. In our 'tourist town', almost all of 200+ restaurants are trying to hire workers, but are forced into bonuses, $15-$17 hour salaries and other means to hire the same people for the same jobs ... for more money. The alternative is to shorten operating hours and cut-down the number of employees (along with slashing benefits).
An often ignored question surrounding an artificially inflated 'minimum wage' is "Who pays for it?" Another is, "What happens to all the entry-level supervisors who are now making $15-$17?" (... and what about their supervisors?... etc.). When the government (which produces nothing), gets into the "free enterprise system," it ceases to operate as a FEA and becomes Socialism or Communism, with only an illusion of free enterprise.
Of course, consumers are already seeing significant increases in prices, which can only continue to go up, nullifying increased minimum wages, ... (and reducing tips for consumers who feel they are getting 'stiffed.' Ultimately, the result is spiraling inflation which nobody can afford.
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