Chamber of Commerce Complains of Labor Shortage..

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Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
20,936
5,560
136
All of the bars and restaurants here are crying for help. They can't find people who want to work for minimum wage plus tips. Remember, this is a small town of 6500 full time residents...but on the weekend, it might also have an additional 10,000 tourists and weekenders...so the labor pool is already pretty small.
Once the enhanced unemployment runs out they'll have staff again. Right now those restaurants are competing with the state, and the state is offering a better deal. The same or better money to not get up in the morning. I'd stay home if I was offered the same deal.
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
38,199
18,669
146
Gratuities, grifts, bribes, etc. should all be gone. They among the many reasons I haven't set foot in a restaurant in close to 20 years and likely never will again.

Bribing somebody to fill your coffee cup or set a plate in front of you is just plain silly.

By your logic, simply paying someone for a service is bribery.
 
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Nov 17, 2019
12,258
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No, that's a wage paid by the employer. I shouldn't have to bribe a person to do something they're being paid to do.
 
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Nov 8, 2012
20,828
4,777
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Once the enhanced unemployment runs out they'll have staff again. Right now those restaurants are competing with the state, and the state is offering a better deal. The same or better money to not get up in the morning. I'd stay home if I was offered the same deal.

Humans aren't stupid. They're like electricity - they take the path of least resistance. Which one sounds like more resistance: Applying, interviewing, starting a new job, and going to work? Or.... Sit on your ass? Hmmmm.... gee I wonder.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,231
5,806
126
Oh no, people have an increased Value for their Labour! What are the Wealthy to do??
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,118
10,942
136
Humans aren't stupid. They're like electricity - they take the path of least resistance. Which one sounds like more resistance: Applying, interviewing, starting a new job, and going to work? Or.... Sit on your ass? Hmmmm.... gee I wonder.
Which should tell you exactly how shitty working conditions were in the first place.

The price floor has been raised.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,077
37,268
136
Once the enhanced unemployment runs out they'll have staff again. Right now those restaurants are competing with the state, and the state is offering a better deal. The same or better money to not get up in the morning. I'd stay home if I was offered the same deal.

This is an article of faith among many people and I'm somewhat skeptical it's going to work out this way, at least in a lot of places/industries that are heavily seasonal or have low average wages. People have moved, retired, died, gone back to school, changed industries, etc. We know this from experience as we've contacted basically everybody who's worked for us in the last 5 years during staff up. I don't discount that there is some UI effect but the guys who think they'll be back to min wage and reams of applications as soon as that goes away are probably fooling themselves.
 

pauldun170

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2011
9,142
5,089
136
Throughout the epidemic, bars have been skirting the rules and people who worked there have been subject to the type of patron that doesn't give a crap about COVID. I've seen plenty of pictures shared by friends of packed bars and people being disrespectful to masked servers trying to pay the bills.
COVID is still around as you still have the asshats that refuse to get vaccinated.
Why the hell would anyone want to return to that?
Some people have ditched it all together and are instead working multiple part time jobs outside the restaurant industry.
In New York, some are still able to collect unemployment but they are also working a full time schedule across multiple jobs where they don't have to deal with drunk disrespectful entitled cayoughnts.

I know people collecting unemployment.
I don't know anyone who is unemployed.
One friend of ours who works has yet to return to her industry and has been working 3 jobs but still qualifies for unemployment.
 
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Nov 8, 2012
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Which should tell you exactly how shitty working conditions were in the first place.

The price floor has been raised.

Wut? No. No it doesn't lol.

The "price floor" hasn't been raised. There is a temporarily placed stimulus that pays upwards to ~$30k job for doing nothing (Based on $250 state benefits with $300 federal benefits) for people who make $20-30k working part time or full time @ ~$13 - $20/hr.

Why is this hard for you and others to understand or wrap your head around?
 
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VW MAN

Senior member
Jun 27, 2020
677
861
96
Wut? No. No it doesn't lol.

The "price floor" hasn't been raised. There is a temporarily placed stimulus that pays upwards to ~$30k job for doing nothing (Based on $250 state benefits with $300 federal benefits) for people who make $20-30k working part time or full time @ ~$13 - $20/hr.

Why is this hard for you and others to understand or wrap your head around?
Look at the moron being a moron. People want to work. People want to earn more then what unemployment pays. Businesses are gonna pony up the cash or deal with not having workers.

Why is this hard for you to understand? Don't answer that.. We already have plenty of evidence your brain cannot comprehend jackshit except for spoon fed propaganda you lap up like the good dog you are.
 
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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
64,208
12,528
136
Once the enhanced unemployment runs out they'll have staff again. Right now those restaurants are competing with the state, and the state is offering a better deal. The same or better money to not get up in the morning. I'd stay home if I was offered the same deal.

Perhaps some will. We know a few people here who have moved on from the food service industry. Too many headaches serving the self-important touristy people we get here 5-6 months out of the year, not enough "reward" for putting up with their attitudes and bullshit. A couple have gone back to school (on-line of course) and either got some kind of certificate, or finished a degree they had started.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,079
21,202
136
Dining out demand is fucking berserk around here. I question the honesty of any operator who tells me they can't modestly boost pricing to get the labor they need to run. The restaurant industry got used to a labor market with a lot of slack in it and that went away, at least temporarily as things shake out. There is a lot of outright anger about this which just exposes the entitled.

My sector isn't complaining like a bunch of toddlers though. We're adapting and doing what we have to do in order to secure the needed labor. It's going to be a crazy good year and a half most likely so instead of bitching we're gearing up to ride the wave.

I do listen to local radio and read some local media and will see what the NYC metro area restaurants do. The fact is the ones that made it now have all this outdoor dining, in many cases. So a lot of restaurants have all these extra sources of income they can turn over 2-3 times a night. If you have five or six additional 4 top tables outside and can turn them a couple times a night - that's an additional 30 or so covers right there, if some are parties of 2 and some are 4. They can raise prices just slightly as well, and a lot of that additional revenue can go to employees. I mean those cooks are now cooking for more people, give them some of the profits!
 
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Amol S.

Platinum Member
Mar 14, 2015
2,411
712
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Look at the moron being a moron. People want to work. People want to earn more then what unemployment pays. Businesses are gonna pony up the cash or deal with not having workers.

Why is this hard for you to understand? Don't answer that.. We already have plenty of evidence your brain cannot comprehend jackshit except for spoon fed propaganda you lap up like the good dog you are.

Above reduced to two words, skills gap.
 

DaaQ

Golden Member
Dec 8, 2018
1,443
1,041
136
There definitely is...or was pre-covid...not sure what, if anything, changed with that...however, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see folks previously employed in food service or retail find other types of employment. As was mentioned in the pics thread...

bcee24ce-4884-46c6-88c0-4a16c5ba9b9a-jpeg.45027


you and I are fortunate in that we live in states where tipped employees are treated like real people...the employer pays them the full minimum wage...PLUS they get their tips, however, in much of the country, the employer pays them $2.13/hr, then the employee makes up the difference between the $2.13 and whatever the minimum wage there is with tips.

Or they could be in a shit hole county and state where the owner pools all the tips together and makes the wait staff split them with the cook and owner.

Edit: OR it's an even larger ASSHOLE of an owner who does the cooking and takes all the tips.
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
38,199
18,669
146
No, that's a wage paid by the employer. I shouldn't have to bribe a person to do something they're being paid to do.

The employer is bribing them.

So, if you are in a low wage state for wait staff and they rely on tips, consider your choice.
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,899
2,260
146
Wut? No. No it doesn't lol.

The "price floor" hasn't been raised. There is a temporarily placed stimulus that pays upwards to ~$30k job for doing nothing (Based on $250 state benefits with $300 federal benefits) for people who make $20-30k working part time or full time @ ~$13 - $20/hr.

Why is this hard for you and others to understand or wrap your head around?
Agreed, the only reason we are are seeing this lack of workers is because of an artificially placed stimulus put in place by the Feds along with other artificial stimulus like a hiatus on rent . Take these things away and watch what happens.
I'm betting on people returning to work in groves.
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,899
2,260
146
Yep, in MA == ~$2 / hour, I tip 25%. If I go to CT, it's minimum wage, so I tip %15. But I rarely eat out anymore (even pre covid). I always thought this $2/hour stuff was garbage. Everyone should get paid the same, and gratuities should be shared evenly amongst all hourly staff, even the dishwashers (but not salaried employees)
Wait what?? You cheap af bro. It has been a few months since we had a tipping thread in OT but your post just might make me create a new one.
 

rommelrommel

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2002
4,410
3,183
146
Agreed, the only reason we are are seeing this lack of workers is because of an artificially placed stimulus put in place by the Feds along with other artificial stimulus like a hiatus on rent . Take these things away and watch what happens.
I'm betting on people returning to work in groves.

Picking fruit is about the last job that Americans want to do.
 

NWRMidnight

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2001
3,038
2,652
136
Wut? No. No it doesn't lol.

The "price floor" hasn't been raised. There is a temporarily placed stimulus that pays upwards to ~$30k job for doing nothing (Based on $250 state benefits with $300 federal benefits) for people who make $20-30k working part time or full time @ ~$13 - $20/hr.

Why is this hard for you and others to understand or wrap your head around?
Why is do hard for you to comprehend that very few are getting anything from the state. Those benefits where only extended 13 weeks, which the majority used up before the end of 2020. Even if that 13 weeks extention was renewed for 2021, those benefits where gone 3 months ago. But as usual, you throw up BS comments not knowing a damn thing you are talking about. It would be nice that at least once you would pull your head out of your ass.
 
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NWRMidnight

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2001
3,038
2,652
136
Or they could be in a shit hole county and state where the owner pools all the tips together and makes the wait staff split them with the cook and owner.

Edit: OR it's an even larger ASSHOLE of an owner who does the cooking and takes all the tips.
Your edit is 100% illegal in all states.
 
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