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It's always nobody wants to work anymore at the wages you are presently offering. It's like concluding we've run out of oil because the price of gasoline went

by api 3y ago

It's always nobody wants to work anymore at the wages you are presently offering. It's like concluding we've run out of oil because the price of gasoline went up.

JadeNB 3y ago
> It's always nobody wants to work anymore at the wages you are presently offering. > It's like concluding we've run out of oil because the price of gasoline went up. I don't think that these are really perfectly analogous—there really is probably the same, if not greater, supply of workers as there ever was if the wages were right; but, no matter how much we're willing to pay, there's less oil available now than there used to be.
- svachalek 3y ago
  We're very close to record highs. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcrfpus2&f=m https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=m... If you're talking about oil in the ground, it's pedantic and not relevant to market pricing.
justin_oaks 3y ago
Great analogy. Yes, nobody wants to work at poor wages. And these employers usually offer poor wages, but they'll often complain about unqualified people too. Sometimes it's rephrased from "Nobody wants to work" to "Nobody wants to work... for you"
randomdata 3y ago
Of course, when you get down to the heart of the matter, it is really: The customer doesn't want what you have to offer anymore. Not having enough revenue to pay the workers a sufficient rate is just a symptom of that.
- lossolo 3y ago
  Or not wanting to pay more to your workers because of greed? I mean Louis Vuitton bag costs to produce probably 5-10% of the price that customer pays.
  - randomdata 3y ago
    Luckily Louis Vuitton is a publicly traded company, so we can see that its average profit margin is actually only 12%. Rule of thumb says that a company needs a 10% margin to be considered healthy. This suggests that while they are in a good place at current wages, there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room. People will take anything if you give it away for free, but it is doubtful that their products would still remain desired by the customers if wages went up and they retained a healthy margin. Fashion products aren't exactly inelastic.
    - lossolo 3y ago
      > Luckily Louis Vuitton is a publicly traded company, so we can see that its average profit margin is actually only 12%. It's not 12%, it's 18% as a whole company. 12% is 20 year average. Louis Vuitton owns many companies, I'm specifically talking about bags but you also have things like: > LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton Société Européenne's operated at median gross profit margin of 66.6% from fiscal years ending December 2018 to 2022. Looking back at the last 5 years, LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton Société Européenne's gross profit margin peaked in June 2023 at 68.7%. 68.7%... > LVMH doesn't break out individual brands' financial results, but analysts say Vuitton's profit margin came in at around 50% last year[1] [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/louis-vuitton-bernard-arnault-abloh-kusama-revenue-richest-person-d0c2c7f2 https://www.wsj.com/articles/louis-vuitton-bernard-arnault-a...
      - randomdata 3y ago
        > It's not 12%, it's 18% as a whole company. 12% is 20 year average. So, 12%. Got it. One successful year doesn't paint much of a picture. Especially when you remember that employees don't usually take pay cuts when business is not doing so well. In many jurisdictions, it is even illegal to see employee pay cuts. > I'm specifically talking about bags General coffers. Even if the margins really are 90% on bags, they're losing money elsewhere. That money is gone no matter how you slice it. They don't magically still have it to offer the workers. Business is hard. > but analysts say Vuitton's profit margin came in at around 50% last year Gross margin, yes. There is more to running a business than COGS, however. Especially a business of their nature.

by api 3y ago

It's always nobody wants to work anymore at the wages you are presently offering. It's like concluding we've run out of oil because the price of gasoline went up.

JadeNB 3y ago

> It's always nobody wants to work anymore at the wages you are presently offering. > It's like concluding we've run out of oil because the price of gasoline went up. I don't think that these are really perfectly analogous—there really is probably the same, if not greater, supply of workers as there ever was if the wages were right; but, no matter how much we're willing to pay, there's less oil available now than there used to be.

svachalek 3y ago
We're very close to record highs. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcrfpus2&f=m https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=m... If you're talking about oil in the ground, it's pedantic and not relevant to market pricing.

justin_oaks 3y ago

Great analogy. Yes, nobody wants to work at poor wages. And these employers usually offer poor wages, but they'll often complain about unqualified people too. Sometimes it's rephrased from "Nobody wants to work" to "Nobody wants to work... for you"

randomdata 3y ago

Of course, when you get down to the heart of the matter, it is really: The customer doesn't want what you have to offer anymore. Not having enough revenue to pay the workers a sufficient rate is just a symptom of that.

lossolo 3y ago
Or not wanting to pay more to your workers because of greed? I mean Louis Vuitton bag costs to produce probably 5-10% of the price that customer pays.
- randomdata 3y ago
  Luckily Louis Vuitton is a publicly traded company, so we can see that its average profit margin is actually only 12%. Rule of thumb says that a company needs a 10% margin to be considered healthy. This suggests that while they are in a good place at current wages, there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room. People will take anything if you give it away for free, but it is doubtful that their products would still remain desired by the customers if wages went up and they retained a healthy margin. Fashion products aren't exactly inelastic.
  - lossolo 3y ago
    > Luckily Louis Vuitton is a publicly traded company, so we can see that its average profit margin is actually only 12%. It's not 12%, it's 18% as a whole company. 12% is 20 year average. Louis Vuitton owns many companies, I'm specifically talking about bags but you also have things like: > LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton Société Européenne's operated at median gross profit margin of 66.6% from fiscal years ending December 2018 to 2022. Looking back at the last 5 years, LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton Société Européenne's gross profit margin peaked in June 2023 at 68.7%. 68.7%... > LVMH doesn't break out individual brands' financial results, but analysts say Vuitton's profit margin came in at around 50% last year[1] [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/louis-vuitton-bernard-arnault-abloh-kusama-revenue-richest-person-d0c2c7f2 https://www.wsj.com/articles/louis-vuitton-bernard-arnault-a...
    - randomdata 3y ago
      > It's not 12%, it's 18% as a whole company. 12% is 20 year average. So, 12%. Got it. One successful year doesn't paint much of a picture. Especially when you remember that employees don't usually take pay cuts when business is not doing so well. In many jurisdictions, it is even illegal to see employee pay cuts. > I'm specifically talking about bags General coffers. Even if the margins really are 90% on bags, they're losing money elsewhere. That money is gone no matter how you slice it. They don't magically still have it to offer the workers. Business is hard. > but analysts say Vuitton's profit margin came in at around 50% last year Gross margin, yes. There is more to running a business than COGS, however. Especially a business of their nature.