The “Labor Shortage” Solution is Obvious: Higher Wages.
Want people to come back to work? Pay them more.
In recent weeks, the conversation surrounding the predictably disappointing infrastructure deal had dominated a lot of the political discourse. But we certainly can’t forget the fact that at this very moment, GOP lawmakers across the country are devoting their time and efforts to ending the additional $300 federal unemployment benefits offered to the millions of workers who found themselves without work in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Of course, this comes at the same time that it was recently reported that American Airlines — after taking $7.5 billion in PPP money and then promptly laying off thousands of employees anyways — cited weather and a “labor shortage” as the reason they will be cancelling a significant number of their flights for the foreseeable future.
The term “labor shortage” seems to be thrown around a lot, lately, doesn’t it? Oftentimes, it’s followed with the phrase “people just don’t want to work anymore”. We can’t scroll through our facebook feeds without seeing something at least alluding to the idea. I heard it at work myself, coming from the woman tasked with looking over employment applications and conducting interviews. Well, I thought, maybe that’s because our surrounding little community knows the vast majority of…
