[B4CKlash]

This is a bit of a strawman. There are a lot of factors influencing the decision on both sides. That $2500 will leave a gap in your resume, both literally and from an experience perspective. The $3000 on the other hand ignores a ton of externalities: Cost of commuting, childcare, etc. plus the associated hours. In a real sense it could be $2500 a month raising your kids, or $1500 a month in real income after childcare/commuting for 50 hours all in.

A business has a number of levers to pull if they want to suppress wages; outsourcing (nationally and internationally) is usually the primary means. How do you suggest we increase the value of people's time without the Government setting the floor? (not to say the Government is the only way - just 'A' way).

[missedthecue]

A lot of the jobs in question don't care about resume gaps (especially during a pandemic) and are not outsourceable. For instance, restaurant, customer service, and retail is hard-hit right now. (I am in this line of work). You cant hire someone in Bangladesh to work those jobs, and you don't care if they were unemployed last year.

But it's also impossible to pay them $10k a month. It's literally not mathematically possible. It's not a case of greed. The profit margins simply aren't fat enough. Around me, they're paying $15 to $16 an hour which is pretty generous and about what I'm making right now.

At the end of the day, there is a huge shortage of labor. We know this because the workforce participation rate is at multidecade record lows. You can tell employers just to pay more, but it's not going to solve the fundamental issue. That's like trying to resolve the housing crisis by telling home shoppers to simply pay more and then wringing your hands of it.

[greedo]

Funny that all the news articles I read where a restaurant or business increases their starting wage to north of $13/hour, they get thousands of applicants.

I think it's amazing that all the free market advocates don't want a free market for labor. If employers want more employees, they simply have to pay more.

Workforce participation is at a low because workers in low paying jobs have looked around and realized their jobs suck, are low paying, and are looking to change to a better career.

[blooalien]

> … "and are looking to change to a better career."

Lotta folks done or are in process of exactly that. I know folks who learned or improved various computer skills during the lockdown time and now have zero plans of goin' back to their crappy job from before.