8 ms·

> Labor still very much seems to have the upper hand in the current market. Serious question but like... the people I interact with at like... Chipotle, Dunkin

• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• jjk166 4y ago
  The wendys by me is offering $23/hr for walk in hires. And given federal minimum wage is $7.25 even $14-16/hr is still pretty damn good. The median individual income in 2019 was $35,977 or $17.29/hr. Median individual income now is $44,225 or $21.26/hr an increase of 22.8%. The fact is most of these jobs would normally be staffed by young and uneducated people who have few other prospects at that stage in life. However shifting demographic trends mean that there simply aren't as many such people to fill these positions as there were in the past. There are fewer people entering the workforce than exiting it due to retirement, and a greater percentage of young people pursue higher education. Before the pandemic even hit, the US achieved full employment and it was becoming difficult to hire unskilled labor. A lot of low wage positions were only filled by virtue of people not wanting to leave to look for other opportunities. With the pandemic, the decision to move was made for a lot of them. Further, a lot of people who were on the cusp of retirement did so slightly early, and many who would have gotten jobs just for the sake of having something to do did not. Combined with an unanticipated boom in various industries like online shopping, there was an has been a severe worker shortage for some time now. Low wage earners are seeing the largest improvement in the current job market.