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It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

thehill.com

21–30 of 427 posts

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#21

It's amazing how business seems to understand the free market when it's selling to customers, but can't seem figure out the free market when it comes to hiring labor.

Its called the invisible hand for a reason. People dont need to understand anything for the forces at play to balance things out, theres just some existing businesses as a casualty.

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#22
post #12

Painfully obvious too. My little local Mexcian place will be closing down because of a lack of cooks. Talking to the owner, he was complaining about government benefits, and how they all want $20 an hour. I don't understand it, that you'd either a) be willing to drive your business into the ground serving a limited menu because you won't hire a couple cooks at $20 an hour, or b) have a business so close to the brink…

It’s easy to understand. If your customers won’t buy Mexican food at a high enough price to pay $20/hour, it’s better to close than to stay open and lose money.

Labor is the highest cost for a restaurant (higher than rent) so bumping wages from $15 to $20 may not be possible if you can’t also raise prices by 30%.

This may be hard to understand for us rich programmers. But it’s quite simple for companies that have really stiff price competition.

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#23
post #12

Painfully obvious too. My little local Mexcian place will be closing down because of a lack of cooks. Talking to the owner, he was complaining about government benefits, and how they all want $20 an hour. I don't understand it, that you'd either a) be willing to drive your business into the ground serving a limited menu because you won't hire a couple cooks at $20 an hour, or b) have a business so close to the brink…

Most restaurants operate on very slim margins. That's why many smaller financial institutions do not risk commercial loans on them unless they've been established for a while or it's guaranteed by an SBA loan which heavily minimizes the financials risk.

Honestly I feel like most people would pay it. It seems to me that everybody just accepts you pay like 10x the price of what you could make something yourself as reasonable. I don't get it and it irks me that we even need to participate in this facade that we're all some sort of royalty class that are entitled this.

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#24
post #12

Painfully obvious too. My little local Mexcian place will be closing down because of a lack of cooks. Talking to the owner, he was complaining about government benefits, and how they all want $20 an hour. I don't understand it, that you'd either a) be willing to drive your business into the ground serving a limited menu because you won't hire a couple cooks at $20 an hour, or b) have a business so close to the brink…

Same with a bundle of Great Clips a friend manages for a franchisee. Can’t find staff, doesn’t believe staff are worth what the current effective minimum wage is. “Have you tried offering more?” “That’s too much for cosmetology work.” Getting slapped by the invisible hand of the market.

The owner class has gotten really used to having the upper hand in the negotiations, they're not coping well at all.

And to that I say: welcome to the club.

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#25
post #4

It's surprising businesses haven't turned to automation. At the very least, most of a restaurant's and a coffee shop's labor can be replaced with automated ordering, having the customer collect food themselves when it's ready, and using robots to prepare more of the food. they can do lattes with art all by themselves now. A lot of these businesses just can't survive if they meet the wage demands of people who have be…

The problem with this is, if the barista gets automated, the customers buy better coffee machines and stop going to the cafe.

An exaggeration, but you see my point perhaps. Unless your service is really purely about bang for buck, trying to automate it in ways that are visible to the customer can have downsides. McDonald’s could probably go full robotic. Starbucks? Not sure, maybe. It would be a little offputting. Your local (good) pizza place? Not likely.

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#26
post #4

It's surprising businesses haven't turned to automation. At the very least, most of a restaurant's and a coffee shop's labor can be replaced with automated ordering, having the customer collect food themselves when it's ready, and using robots to prepare more of the food. they can do lattes with art all by themselves now. A lot of these businesses just can't survive if they meet the wage demands of people who have be…

I'm afraid I can't find the graph, but I saw something showing that food service revenue has fully rebounded since the pandemic while food service employment has not. That would imply that labor saving is already in effect. It would also be unsurprising that not every restaurant would handle it equally well.

Some of my favorite dine-in restaurants are still pickup only. I think they realized that they can make just as much money doing take out and a lot less people management now that there are no severs

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#27
post #12

Painfully obvious too. My little local Mexcian place will be closing down because of a lack of cooks. Talking to the owner, he was complaining about government benefits, and how they all want $20 an hour. I don't understand it, that you'd either a) be willing to drive your business into the ground serving a limited menu because you won't hire a couple cooks at $20 an hour, or b) have a business so close to the brink…

The only way to avoid shutting down would be to raise prices, right? What if the owner knew customers wouldn't pay higher prices because he has tried to raise prices many times before and knows that it turns customers away?

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#28

It's amazing how business seems to understand the free market when it's selling to customers, but can't seem figure out the free market when it comes to hiring labor.

Or when they can't keep non-drug addicted employees who are willing to work for less than the cost of living. It boggles my mind the most when a lot of restaurants treat these employees like garbage and then get upset when they realize their worth and leave.

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#29
post #12

Painfully obvious too. My little local Mexcian place will be closing down because of a lack of cooks. Talking to the owner, he was complaining about government benefits, and how they all want $20 an hour. I don't understand it, that you'd either a) be willing to drive your business into the ground serving a limited menu because you won't hire a couple cooks at $20 an hour, or b) have a business so close to the brink…

The margins tend to already be razor thin. It is strange that they weren’t willing to try experimenting with higher wages and less employees. Maybe they’re already too overwhelmed from the pandemic to continue? The perception that not a lot of people are willing to pay for higher priced Chinese and Mexican foods factored into the decision?

Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage

#30
post #22
post #12

Painfully obvious too. My little local Mexcian place will be closing down because of a lack of cooks. Talking to the owner, he was complaining about government benefits, and how they all want $20 an hour. I don't understand it, that you'd either a) be willing to drive your business into the ground serving a limited menu because you won't hire a couple cooks at $20 an hour, or b) have a business so close to the brink…

It’s easy to understand. If your customers won’t buy Mexican food at a high enough price to pay $20/hour, it’s better to close than to stay open and lose money. Labor is the highest cost for a restaurant (higher than rent) so bumping wages from $15 to $20 may not be possible if you can’t also raise prices by 30%. This may be hard to understand for us rich programmers. But it’s quite simple for companies that have rea…

The competition recruits from the same labor pool, I don't think we misunderstand anything.
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