I am deeply connected to the trades in the nyc metro area - my father in law is a bridge-building ironworker foreman, I have ~a dozen friends who own carpentry

I am deeply connected to the trades in the nyc metro area - my father in law is a bridge-building ironworker foreman, I have ~a dozen friends who own carpentry and plumbing companies, and I myself worked in sales for a while at a family electrical contractor business. What I can tell you is that these small business owners are fabulously wealthy. The income from running a shop with even a few field crews is absolutely insane. And the entire business model is predicated on paying slave wages with zero benefits to workers. For every multi-millionaire owner there are one or two sales/account managers and foreman making a middle class salary, and a small army of young guys and undocumented people doing the actual work making McDonald’s hourly wages. I could have inherited one of these businesses but I left because I couldn’t stomach the wealth disparity. If there are “not enough” workers then the employers are not offering a market-clearing wage.