California’s minimum wage is currently set at $15 per hour, which is up nearly double from $8 a mere 10 years ago. However, one of the jobs which is considered to be the most basic - needing the least amount of skills - in the restaurant industry is the job of a busser and dishwasher. Usually these job postings would be listed for individuals looking to make minimum wage, yet now they are being posted for over 33% above minimum wage at $20+ per hour. Why?
The pandemic caused nearly all of Los Angeles’ restaurants to shut their doors indefinitely. Unable to pay their workers due to lack of income, the large preponderance were forced to cut nearly all of their staff, keeping only a manager and a chef. This led to unemployment for waiters, hosts, bussers, and dishwashers all across the country. However, with unemployment came their Covid stimulus checks, which - for many of them - amounted to much more than what they were used to making for their hard work at their restaurant jobs. Therefore, upon being able to return to work many of them, especially lower paid workers, decided not to return to work. In speaking with Tyler Wilson, the owner of Wurstkuche in the Arts District, he explained that it was impossible to get workers at the moment. Another California restaurant owner said, “It’s like a war,” to get workers.
State governments such as Hawaii have figured this problem out: if one is offered their job back and they refuse it, their employer is to report that and they will stop receiving government unemployment benefits. California claims to be pro-small business, yet it is policies like these that exist in other states, yet are not implemented that lead to a declining economy, causing the closure of small businesses. State governments and municipalities are there to regulate, and to hold people accountable. It is one’s duty to be a productive member of society if mentally and physically able to do so, small business owners’ are doing their part and opening their shops their employees should do their part and return to work for a fair wage. California needs to do their job as a regulator, and enforce such morals into their citizens.
The system must be pretty broken for people to refuse to return to work at jobs they presumably liked before covid. The unemployment offered to californians was definitely generous at times–better that than stingy–but it shouldn't be so much that people would rather sit at home than go to work. I do find it odd that people are allowed to collect unemployment after declining work... that seems super broken and it sounds like Hawaii is doing the right thing. I hope wage workers get their priorities back in order soon.
It was tough to see so many small business have to close their doors throughout the duration of the pandemic. I think what Hawaii did to get people to work was very smart and a great way to deal with people who are complacent and content with staying on unemployment benefits when offered a chance to work. I think even before the pandemic there was a abundant amount of people abusing the system with unemployment benefits. To fix this issue permanently in the long term there either has to be more regulation on people who qualify or a push towards making typically low paying jobs more appealing.
My family friends own a restaurant and greatly struggled to hire back employees. Many of their loyal employees had to lay off because the restaurant had to be closed. When they went back into business, those who they wanted to rehire, were better off living off of their stimulus checks. So then they struggled to pick up the work on their own, affecting their hours and usual workload. Overall, having a domino effect on their business.
This is a topic I am very familiar with. During the summer of 2020 I was in intern for a hospitality group and we were in the process of opening two new locations. Hiring and training employees was one of my tasks and it was VERY difficult to find people to work. Government stimulus checks were giving people more money than they would make working a normal week, so no one was inclined to return to work. We would have employees trying to work around this by saying they would only work one day so that they could still get unemployment. Customers had less money so those who did return to work were making nothing in tips (which is complicated…
This is definitely a topic worth discussing and I'd like to start by address your starting statement that the minimum wage is "$15 per hour, which is up nearly double from $8 a mere 10 years ago.". This is clearly meant to illustrate that minimum wage is increasing and workers should be content with it, but it's missing a vital factor: inflation. As inflation continues to increase (as it has over the past hundred years), everything grows more expensive from necessary household items, to schooling costs, to housing prices, while the minimum wage often stagnates. It is certainly a good thing that the minimum wage practically doubled in the time period you listed, because if it had not people workin…