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Maybe it’s time to stop blaming workers, particularly women workers
Posted in:
* Center Square…
Women workers have left the hospitality industry in droves, Nahabedian lamented. With unemployment benefits as a cushion, and side hustles in delivery businesses, women support staff and even women chefs are not willing to come back to work just yet for fear of bringing the virus home to their families, Nahabedian stated.
That fear is real.
* But there’s another reason…
With the U.S. economy growing rapidly, millions of people have returned to work. Yet there is still one large group of Americans whose employment rates remain far below their prepandemic levels — mothers of young children.
Consider this data, which Moody’s Analytics compiled for The Morning:
The explanation is obvious enough. Many schools and day care centers have not returned to normal operations. They are open for only a few hours a day, a few days a week or on alternating weeks, making it difficult for parents to return to a full-time job. And parenting responsibilities still fall disproportionately on women.
* Meanwhile, here’s Illinois Review…
A restaurant in Plainfield Illinois is begging its customer base to be patient - very patient. Why? Because although they’re trying desperately, they’ve not been able to find and hire the employees they need to be up to their normal efficiency.
Why the shortage of employees? The owners of the Tap House Grill - Santino and Rick - don’t get political in this plea posted on Facebook Monday, but they give a hint of what they’re thinking:
“With many people not actively pursuing employment opportunities and not wanting to work at all at this time. our business is having a massive uptick in new customers and with that comes a lot of pressure without having the ability to find qualified applicants or applicants at all at this venture,” they write in a post to their customers.
* They’re blaming workers, but maybe potential employees can use the Google and don’t trust the owners to do what’s right to protect them? From last October…
A growing number of restaurants throughout Illinois have opted to defy Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s orders mandating they shutter indoor dining service.
In Plainfield, Tap House Grill, 24402 W Lockport St, has said it will stay open despite Pritzker’s orders.
Last September…
“Pritzker is a far-reaching, power abusing, tyrant that is destroying small business,” said Santino Patragas, owner of Tap House Grill in Plainfield
* Also, perhaps there’s a lesson in the Pittsburgh Business Times…
As March drew to a close, Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor in the Strip District found itself without enough workers for the upcoming spring and summer rush, and it certainly did not have enough workers to open the shop to its desired seven days a week schedule.
Then, on March 30, the parlor announced it would more than double the starting wage for the roles, going from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour, a scoop that seemed to captivate workers throughout the region and one that earned a significant amount of local media coverage.
“It was instant, overnight. We got thousands of applications that poured in,” Maya Johnson, general manager of Klavon’s, said. “It was very overwhelming, very. People were coming in by the next day that it broke on the news, they were coming in, filling out paper applications. I was doing on-the-spot interviews.”
* Economic Policy Institute…
Further, when restaurant owners can’t find workers to fill openings at wages that aren’t meaningfully higher than they were before the pandemic—even though the jobs are inherently more stressful and potentially dangerous because workers now have to deal with anti-maskers and ongoing health concerns—that’s not a labor shortage, that’s the market functioning. The wages for a harder, riskier job should be higher.
* And the BLS…
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 916,000 in March
People are going back to work.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 11:55 am
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Oh, you and your “facts”
Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 11:57 am
The demand for workers is higher than the supply, whatever is a business owner to do? Somebody should look in to this
Comment by SWIL_Voter Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:03 pm
I have a hunch Tap House Grill hasn’t done what the ice cream parlor did.
Comment by Montrose Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:08 pm
=that’s not a labor shortage, that’s the market functioning. The wages for a harder, riskier job should be higher.=
Amen
=will stay open despite Pritzker’s orders.=
Now…Karma.
Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:08 pm
Easy to make that conclusion from behind the computer.
In real life, businesses (especially restaurants and hospitality) can’t find people. They’re making too much sitting on the sidelines.
Moreover, why would any restaurant worker go back to work (even, gasp, restaurants who operated safely) a risk their unemployment when the rules on their employment or ability to get shifts changes by the minute or upon the whim of our Governor and the IDPH.
You’re way off base here. But hey, just double the hourly rate - and watch your $9 cheeseburger become a $18 cheeseburger - and then - watch whatever customers you have left, walk out the door.
It isn’t that simple.
Comment by DuPage Moderate Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:09 pm
It’s interesting that many conservatives are all about the free market until the workers want a higher wage…
Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:14 pm
Maybe Devore can sue the workers on behalf of the Tap House Grill.
Comment by don the legend Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:15 pm
Looking at what those Tap House guys say in public, imagine what they say in the privacy of their own place. No thanks, even at double the pay.
Comment by Jibba Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:17 pm
In before times, I had been to the Tap House Grill.
They are on the ever growing (sadly growing) list of “no go” places.
Am I shocked they’re whining? Nope.
They are Covidiots and now wonder aloud why anyone would wanna work there, for those wages, and have an employer who clearly didn’t care about the health or safety of anyone on the premises.
They want weak, feeble souls who will work cheap and maybe won’t care if they get infected.
I know this because their history at the Tap House Grill has been “strength, ignorance, anger, and money”
The dangers of the establishment aren’t worth the wage they think employees are worth.
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:19 pm
People making rational decisions - continue with UI benefits and stimulus resources until an adequate wage and benefits can be provided to incentivize a return to the workforce.
We are seeing it every day in disability services. We can’t offer competitive wages if we don’t get adequate rates from the state.
Anyways…
Comment by Waffle Fries Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:29 pm
One thing this pandemic has demonstrated is how awful health care and child care is for essential workers, especially the women. Somedays I feel that there is an undeclared war on women who are expected to do it all for free.
Comment by Cable Line Beer Gardener Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:30 pm
Went to Tap House Grill website, clicked on the “view open positions’ button—no results for any of their locations.
They aren’t even trying.
Comment by Chris Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:32 pm
I thought people believed in market forces. Pay them well and people work. Pay them poorly and treat them bad they will not work. Raise the price of your food.
Comment by DuPage Saint Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:35 pm
===watch your $9 cheeseburger become a $18 cheeseburger ===
lol
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:37 pm
Said it before say it again. If they did not care about safety at the height of the pandemic. Why would you trust them to be safe to eat or work at now?
Comment by Drake Mallard Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:40 pm
I’m sick and tired of the complaints that workers would rather stay home and collect overly generous benefits instead of working. It’s false, divisive and politically motivated.
From the Economist:
“There are three potential explanations for the puzzling shortages: over-generous benefits; fearful workers; and a reallocation of labour between industries. Start with America’s huge fiscal handouts. The latest stimulus cheques, posted in the spring, were for up to $1,400 per person. Seemingly every American knows of a neighbour’s cousin’s boyfriend who received a “stimmy” cheque, then quit his job in order to sit on the sofa. A federal supplement to unemployment insurance (ui), currently $300 a week, ensures that four in ten unemployed people earn more from benefits than they did in their previous job. Economic research has long concluded that more generous benefits blunt incentives to look for work.
Yet this relationship appears to have weakened during the pandemic. The fact that increases in ui payments have been time-limited may make workers reluctant to turn down a job with longer-lasting rewards. In the early part of the pandemic the ui supplement was even more generous, at $600, but its expiry in the summer had “little effect on overall employment”, according to a paper published in February by Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Likewise, in the areas where the current $300 is a relatively larger boost to income, employment growth has not weakened since January, when that uplift was introduced.
This suggests that the second factor, fear, may be important in explaining America’s shortage of staff. Nearly 4m people are not looking for work “because of the coronavirus pandemic”, according to official data. And consider which industries are experiencing the most acute worker shortages. Jobs in health care, recreation and hospitality report the highest level of job openings, relative to employment. Many of these involve plenty of person-to-person contact, making their workers especially vulnerable to infection (a study from California earlier this year found that cooks were most at risk from dying of covid-19). By contrast, in industries where maintaining social distancing or being outside is often easier, labour shortages are less of an issue. The number of job openings per employee in the construction industry is lower today than it was before the pandemic.”
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/04/29/why-are-american-workers-becoming-harder-to-find?utm_campaign=editorial-social&utm_medium=social-organic&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2G5dwHw1BKCU76JcH9RJ3DLSfEJP8KglvdwCzRv6cP8SzOVXixt0fKfII
Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:41 pm
To me, Cable Line Beer Gardener made a very important point.
Comment by Back to the Future Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:43 pm
=== In real life===
When someone uses “real life” during a global pandemic where workers are at a loss for child care and health issues of the employees are ignored because making that dollar off those who are most at risk is “worth it”…
… you kinda laugh at the whole “in real life” premise at jump street.
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:48 pm
Reduced immigration (both legal and illegal) is also a cause. The US has always relied on low-skilled immigrants to fill the jobs many US residents won’t.
Comment by RIJ Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 12:55 pm
In addition to the risk of exposure, and lack of child care …. there’s this activity called remote learning. Mothers, in particular, are supervising their children’s screen time for education, trying to decipher math equations, etc. Their children are now home all day, meaning that evening workers aren’t getting their daytime chores and errands done either. It’s very hard to work any kind of job when you are doing all of that. I’m annoyed by people who don’t consider reality when they judge others. Give some thought before you just blindly say they are too lazy to work due to decent unemployment payments.
Comment by thoughts matter Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:00 pm
I wonder how many people there are currently collecting benefits and have no plans to go back to work when the benefits expire. I personally know a few people in that situation, and why are they not actually trying to gain employment…? Yep, they are taking care of their kids while their spouse works. Why go to work for $13/hour to pay someone more than that to watch your kids?
Comment by Ducky LaMoore Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:02 pm
The tipped minimum wage in Illinois is $6.60 an hour. I imagine that’s the going rate at Tap House Grill. So, assuming they’re offering full-time, which they probably aren’t, that’s $264 per week. Now, technically, if your tips don’t bump up your average to $11/hour, the restaurant is supposed to make up the difference. But Tap House Grill has spent the better part of the past year letting everyone know, very loudly, that they aren’t interested in following any rules that cut into their bottom line.
So, $264 a week, no benefits, and you’re relying on some of the Karen-est customers in the state, who are more likely than others to put a Bible verse or advice for pulling you up by your bootstraps in the tip line of the receipt to increase your income. Who says yes?
I can’t post it here, but my tip for the owners of Tap House Grill is Twitter’s “Me sowing/Me reaping” meme.
Comment by Roadrager Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:07 pm
When owners pay low wages or charge high prices to maximize their profits, that’s just rational self interest.
But when workers choose not to work for low they’re being selfish and or lazy.
If the goal is to keep burger prices low and lines short, why not encourage the owners to tighten their belts a little bit? why is it always the regular, non-owning folks who have to take the hit?
Comment by Actual Red Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:18 pm
Might want to forward that graph to the NEA and AFT.
Comment by City Zen Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:22 pm
Where people are forced to work several jobs to make a living wage…what kind of a place is that?…is it the greatest country on Earth?
This pandemic ripped the mask off of the big lie…and the true face can not be unseen…ever again.
Comment by Dotnonymous Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:25 pm
One state did the obvious- removing enhanced unemployment benefits that are keeping people from returning to work and stifling economic recovery
Montana ends unemployment pay boost amid worker shortage
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has announced that the state will end its participation next month in the federal unemployment program that gives extra payments to jobless workers
“Montana is open for business again, but I hear from too many employers throughout our state who can’t find workers. Nearly every sector in our economy faces a labor shortage,” Gianforte said in a statement.
He said that the extra federal unemployment benefits are “doing more harm than good,” echoing comments by some that the extra payments have served as an incentive for people to stay home, collect the money and not seek work.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/montana-ends-unemployment-pay-boost-amid-worker-shortage-77495881
Comment by Lucky Pierre Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:51 pm
DuPage Mod — Tap House Grill already charges $14 for a cheeseburger. That covers more than 2 hours of pay at $6.60.
Also — the price of a cheeseburger would double only if labor were the sole input. To compute the impact of doubling the wage on product pricing, we would need to know the firm’s total costs of operations, as well as their overhead. But if we assume that labor represents 20 percent of the restaurant’s total expenditures, then doubling labor costs would directly increase the total production cost by 20 percent. (This of course assumes that there would be no cost savings related to reduced absenteeism or employee churn.)
And if you’re asking if I’m willing to spend $17 for a cheeseburger instead of $14, if that means that I will wait less time for it to arrive and that I will be served by a less-surly, fully vaccinated employee — yeah, that sounds okay to me.
Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:55 pm
===watch your $9 cheeseburger become a $18 cheeseburger ===
More like watch no one want the job of making your cheeseburger because they can make more doing less — unless you’re ready to just have burgers and nothing else. Because with what most restaurants are paying, the only people they’re going to get to cook are teenagers who can flip a burger but not anything more. Even that’s questionable. I have a friend who manages fast food restaurants and can’t even keep teenagers working in her places for long. I was a chef. It’s a very rewarding, tremendous job and I loved it. But it’s also stressful and physically demanding, requiring cooks to be on their feet for 8-10 hours at a time for maybe 15/hour in the suburbs, if you’re lucky. And no guarantee that you’ll get the hours you’re scheduled for if the restaurant isn’t busy — let alone get 40 hours per week. Don’t even think about insurance. Or paid time off. No matter how much you love it, you get tired of going through that while seeing the waitstaff walking out every night with tips that are 3 times what any of the cooks made. That’s why no one who I went to culinary school with is still in the business. There’s easier ways to make more money. As far as Tap House is concerned, I won’t comment because I only know of them by reputation. But they don’t seem to be trying very hard because they don’t have any job openings posted on Indeed.
Comment by SouthSide Markie Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 1:59 pm
City Zen — You’re aware, I suppose, that children are not born at the age of 6 and ready for school? You are also aware, presumably, that even full-time in-person school ends several hours before the average workday is concluded?
Let’s also note that child care workers are at high risk for covid infection, which can force everybody into quarantine and shut down the center for a couple of weeks. (A Covid-infected child can do the same.)
And maybe some parents don’t want to send their kids into a high-risk environment, for a variety of reasons.
One more thing — did you notice that the variant in Brazil is being linked to a frightening increase in deaths among pregnant women?
Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:02 pm
==One state did the obvious- removing enhanced unemployment benefits that are keeping people from returning to work and stifling economic recovery==
As always, Pierre, thanks for not reading. Also, please provide any proof of Montana’s big bootstrap-pulling plan actually working, seeing as how it’s not being implemented until June 27th.
Can’t get enough of these rock-ribbed conservatives demanding the government do something when the invisible hand of the free market lightly raps them across the face.
Comment by Roadrager Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:02 pm
Single moms have to also consider what would happen to their kids if they become hospitalized with Covid.
Who would take care of them? Would the kids be traumatized and have behavior problems after that? Their kids should be their first priority.
Comment by DuPage Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:07 pm
===watch your $9 cheeseburger become a $18 cheeseburger ===
Meaningless fearmongering. Businesses already charge the maximum they can profitably do so. Businesses pay the minimum they can in expenses (and often less, see, e.g., massive systematic wage theft in the US).
Paying people more won’t double prices any more than increasing taxes drives businesses out of states. There have been multiple studies showing increased minimum wages have negligible impact on prices, either by comparing prices between different countries/states with different minimum wages, or by looking at prices before and after minimum wage changes went into effect.
All propaganda, all the time.
Comment by Homebody Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:12 pm
How is enhanced unemployment during a time when businesses can’t hire enough workers the “invisible hand of the free market?”
Comment by Lucky Pierre Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:13 pm
=== How is enhanced unemployment during a time when businesses can’t hire enough workers the “invisible hand of the free market?”===
It’ll still be there, that free market. The wages some won’t work for, due to the losing economics of the cost of child care being more than the monies earned for that needed child care.
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:18 pm
RIJ - You are exactly correct. In my town, the owner of Northwestern Steel and Wire sent two trains South in the height of their need. One to the Appalachian Mountains and one to the Texas/Mexico border to bring back workers. We are missing the Irish, the Germans, the Poles to come fill our labor jobs. Immigration is going to be necessary to get out of this.
Comment by Westender Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:23 pm
Soccermom - You’re aware, I suppose, the NEA and AFT already unscientifically inserted themselves in the re-opening process.
https://nypost.com/2021/05/01/teachers-union-collaborated-with-cdc-on-school-reopening-emails/
Comment by City Zen Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:25 pm
In Whiteside County we have 350 more people on unmployment TOTAL than we did before Covid. We are essentially back at “full employment”. However, we have 1,000 people less in the workforce, not sitting on the unemployment roles, not actively seeking work, just out of the workforce. Who are these people, where did they go? The notion that all of these people are sitting there collecting their equivalent of $15.00 an hour eating bonbons is not supported by the data - at least in my County.
Comment by Westender Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 2:27 pm
City Zen thinks he’s cute. Just ignore him.
Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 3:16 pm
The people who lavish corporations and the richest with billions in tax cut handouts want working stiffs to get off the dole and back to work. Precious, idn’t it?
Comment by Grandson of Man Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 3:18 pm
Forgot what message board was on.
You’re right, the cheeseburger won’t be $18. It will be $15 and will be made by a robot.
Nobody on here will care because they’ll get their pension and continue to view the world through their public sector lens.
In the real world…it’s a real thing.
Comment by DuPage Moderate Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 9:42 pm
=== Nobody on here will care because they’ll get their pension and continue to view the world through their public sector lens.===
LOL
Pathetically jealous or frivolously angry
You choose.
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, May 5, 21 @ 10:07 pm
Pay people a fair wage and they’ll work for it. Government supports decried by business do make people say work is only worth it if the wage is fair. That’s a good thing.
Comment by Advocate Thursday, May 6, 21 @ 8:31 am