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Companies address labor shortages by pursuing current or former prisoners

theguardian.com

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Re: Companies address labor shortages by pursuing current or former prisoners

#11

Post by dahfizz »

perfunctory wrote: post #3

> ... as bosses refuse to raise wages to attract employees I see UBI as a very elegant solution to this problem. It levels the playing field for everybody. The problem with the current job market is that the negotiation power is not symmetrical.

> I see UBI as a very elegant solution to this problem.

To which problem? A UBI will obviously mean more income for those stuck in low wage jobs.

But a UBI will definitely not help attract employees to low wage positions. In fact, I think the increased unemployment benefits during Covid proved that if people have some sort of UBI payment, they are not going to work low wage jobs (hence the labor shortage).

Re: Companies address labor shortages by pursuing current or former prisoners

#13

Post by lotsofpulp »

dahfizz wrote: post #11
perfunctory wrote: post #3

> ... as bosses refuse to raise wages to attract employees I see UBI as a very elegant solution to this problem. It levels the playing field for everybody. The problem with the current job market is that the negotiation power is not symmetrical.

> I see UBI as a very elegant solution to this problem. To which problem? A UBI will obviously mean more income for those stuck in low wage jobs. But a UBI will definitely not help attract employees to low wage positions. In fact, I think the increased unemployment benefits during Covid proved that if people have some sort of UBI payment, they are not going to work low wage jobs (hence the labor shortage).

The problem of undesirable work being low wage due to people being born to the parents they were born to.

Re: Companies address labor shortages by pursuing current or former prisoners

#14

Post by relax88 »

postingawayonhn wrote: post #9
relax88 wrote: post #5

The idea that there can be a labour shortage in an industry that does not require specialized skills, at a time in history where capital has more power than ever is a total joke.

If there is a shortage of labour surely it is to be expected that employees will have more bargaining power and move into higher paying and more 'respectable' jobs?

Not if you use the prison population and lobby Congress to import more cheap foreign labour so that you don’t have to increase wages.

Which is entirely my point.

Re: Companies address labor shortages by pursuing current or former prisoners

#16

Post by foxyv »

dahfizz wrote: post #11
perfunctory wrote: post #3

> ... as bosses refuse to raise wages to attract employees I see UBI as a very elegant solution to this problem. It levels the playing field for everybody. The problem with the current job market is that the negotiation power is not symmetrical.

> I see UBI as a very elegant solution to this problem. To which problem? A UBI will obviously mean more income for those stuck in low wage jobs. But a UBI will definitely not help attract employees to low wage positions. In fact, I think the increased unemployment benefits during Covid proved that if people have some sort of UBI payment, they are not going to work low wage jobs (hence the labor shortage).

Maybe UBI will drill into business leaders heads that they need to either:

a) Make a better workplace that people don't hate coming to.

b) Make the wages compensate enough for the terrible environment they have created.

With a UBI, managers would no longer be under the illusion that "They will eventually come crawling back when they run out of money."

Re: Companies address labor shortages by pursuing current or former prisoners

#20

Post by BrianOnHN »

shadowgovt wrote: post #4
perfunctory wrote: post #3

> ... as bosses refuse to raise wages to attract employees I see UBI as a very elegant solution to this problem. It levels the playing field for everybody. The problem with the current job market is that the negotiation power is not symmetrical.

It's not clear that UBI would make negotiation power symmetrical per se, but if it were placed at a high enough value to take the bottom two tiers of Maslow's hierarchy off the negotiating table, that's a net positive for society regardless.

> take the bottom two tiers of Maslow's hierarchy off the negotiating table, that's a net positive for society regardless.

Who could consciously down vote this?

-1 to HN perceived morality.

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