Work Shortage

Work Shortage

Zachary Heinis, Staff Writer

Wherever you go to eat, be they restaurants or drive-thrus, it’s easy to notice the work shortage that is taking place in the United States.

One could argue that this all started when Covid-19 rocked the world.  Once it hit the U.S., there was a nationwide work order that went through that forced people to stay at their homes and make money, which also allowed them to stay safe.

Now that most lock downs and quarantines have ended, you’d expect that people would be back working right? Wrong.  Rather than working, people stay at home and still get paid, because why would you work a minimum wage job when you can make the same amount staying at home.

However, the reasons for this may be deeper than getting paid for doing nothing.

With the 2020 pandemic and time off, workers were able to re-evaluate their life choices and see if going back to minimum wage jobs is really what they wanted.  People realized that they liked being able to work from home and still get the same amount of work done.  Minimum wage workers were allowed to reflect and realize that they want to do something better with their life than simply work minimum wage jobs.

This provides a harder realization.  If people are going back to online or in-person college to get an actual education, then how will fast food companies, and other minimum wage jobs get workers?

The answer to this question will shape the next generations of work in the United States, and companies need to figure it out before there are no more minimum wage workers.