I worked in the travel industry, and my brief included entry-level call center agents, which is more or less the same kind of market — part time shift work for basically unskilled labor we had to train ourselves.
Again, why must I choose?
You’re basically looking at the criticism that employment is wage slavery and saying why yes, yes it is.
I think you may be talking past some people here. Different issues are being discussed I suspect.
I completely agree with you that from a cold and analytic perspective, the idea that externalities will force people into jobs they would otherwise prefer not to take is correct. Your economic perspective is unassailable. This is only good news for businesses looking for part time workers that will work at or near minimum wage.
On the other hand, there’s a general sense of late that corporate interests have colluded to keep a pool of workers in substandard economic conditions in order to have a readily exploitable workforce. From that perspective, seeing public comments about lower wages in response to workforce desperation is absolutely enraging.
This is very well said @Tortilla , and I thank you for it.
Maybe Wayne Pankratz can get re-hired as a server when Applebee’s announces his firing.
KevinC
4324
You can’t have slavery in a FREE market. Checkmate, bro!
Economics are complicated. Here in the SF Bay Area, eating lunch out around the office is probably averaging $15 bucks for me, with tax and tip. On the days I go in, I’m certainly packing a lunch more often than I did when lunch was like $10 bucks. Which is better for these workers? Better pay for those who can get it or more folks employed at lower wages? I honestly don’t know the answer. What I do know is the unassailable realities of the economics, both on the hiring side (i.e., the restaurant managers) and on my side (i.e., the consumer).
What I can philosophically assail is if these lower wages didn’t get passed on, at least to some degree, to the consumer and were instead completely retained by the corporations as profit. They’re economically free to do it, I’m just going to pack my lunch even more.
My main question for those who are shocked by the idea that wages might go down is what should be done about it, if you were king for the day?
What exactly does this even mean? It’s wage slavery if the employers shift wages based on labor supply?
That right there is the problem. Very large corporate interests seem to have captured (either ideologically or through financial interest) control of enough of our government to ensure that they remain free to do this. The exact methods are debatable and difficult to prove, but the outcome is super clear. Corporations are directing less and less of their revenue to workers over time, and more and more to executives and shareholders. This is a thorny issue to tackle, but it must be tackled because taken far enough it results in a caste system or aristocracy or similar. It certainly doesn’t lead to a free and just society.
This is certainly true in sectors where market forces are distorted (e.g., healthcare, monopolies or semi-monopolies), but my understanding is the food service sector is cutthroat in terms of competition. A company in this space that tries to drive a profit margin that is out of step with the market is going to find competitors at its heels who are more than willing to accept a lower profit margin for market share.
I’ll just leave this right here:
Dine Brands Global, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2021 Results
March 2, 2022 at 7:00 AM EST
Fourth Quarter 2021 Domestic Average Weekly Unit Sales for Both Brands Exceed Pre-Pandemic Levels for the Second Consecutive Quarter
Fourth Quarter 2021 Consolidated Revenues Increased 17% to $229.6 Million
Fourth Quarter 2021 Gross Profit Improved by 43% to $96.5 Million
https://investors.dinebrands.com/news-releases/news-release-details/dine-brands-global-inc-reports-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-2021
Indeed, they have no choice but to take advantage of labor desperation. Otherwise they would surely fail.
Alstein
4331
In other words, guillotines, either legal or actual.
Those are both improvements over Q4 of 2020, which look bad. The restaurant industry struggled during 2020. Are they supposed to stay at that level forever?
What’s the position here? The food service industry is full of fat cats?
Maybe read the linked article? Revenues and profits are up substantially even compared to 2019.
KevinC
4334
Once more, we find ourselves in a situation where there’s simply nothing that can be done!
That? It’s a nothingburger. And there’s nothing we can do about it anyway.
I’ve been in the industry for over 25 years. Worked a lot of different places. A lot. I say this- every (and I mean every single one) restaurant owner I’ve ever know owns a very nice house, drives a very nice car and their kids tend to go to private school. And this is in Seattle.
Most don’t even work at the restaurant- even as management. Oh, sure they hang out a lot, and make broad decisions that the chef/GM have to implement, but they don’t actually have a job there. So don’t talk to me about razor thin margins. Fuck that noise. They build their business on the backs of an exploited workforce, and that’s that. One prominent local restaurantuer I spent an uncortunate few months working for had a policy of paying absurdly low wages for cooks, etc., because it was “just cheaper to keep ads out in all the the local papers than paying people a decent wage”(this was in the nacesnt internet days)- there’s always more desperate people to hire and exploit. He actually posted an open letter several years ago when Seattle was debating the $15/hour minimum. Poor guy, he just wouldn’t have been able to build his little empire if that sort of law was in effect- as if he was goddamn owed his fucking exploitative outfit.
