Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Republicans in disarray!

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Let there be snark.

Reality always lies in wait for 
 Democrats.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

This blog will pay for itself.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Evening Open Thread: Lousy Employers Decry Their Lost Hammocks

Friday Evening Open Thread: Lousy Employers Decry Their Lost Hammocks

by | 103 Comments

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Such tales of performative woe will never stop being funny for me.

Maybe it’s just a cult!

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Amazon tripled its profits. Walmart has so much money it raised its shareholder dividend (again) and did a share buyback to boost the stock price. Corporate America is swimming in money—they just don’t want to use any of it for wages.

    Are the big guys hurting for labor? I thought they were the ones scooping up the low wage employees?

  2. 2.

    debbie

    These assholes owe their workers everything. Workers are who keep the business running and flourishing, for chrissakes.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    They said raising the minimum wage would cost jobs because it would lead to automation.  Why won’t a labor shortage do the same thing? Where are the robots?

  8. 8.

    different-church-lady

    I do wonder if we’re going to stop giving restaurant waitstaff wages that are so third-world level that the diners are pretty much obligated to directly provide them with all of their income.

  9. 9.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud:

    Where are the robots?

    They’re in the corporate board rooms, blindly executing programs written by business schools.

  10. 10.

    debbie

    At long last, lousy employers are at the wrong end of Supply and Demand. Suck it up, guys.

  11. 11.

    artem1s

    maybe if all those trust fund babies weren’t swimming in untaxed capital gains, they’d put down their Cosmopolitans, get out of their f**cking hammocks, and go out and get themselves a job!

    The working poor getting child care bennies and a living wage IS.NOT.THE.PROBLEM.  It’s inherited wealth and rich living off the stolen labor of the masses.

  15. 15.

    Another Scott

    @Baud:

    Those job-killing robots are hiding from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — don't show up in productivity data https://t.co/AVBg3uNvPy

    — Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) December 15, 2016

    While one should be cautious about putting too much stock in one statistic, the stagnation in productivity growth (increase in output per human hour worked) does show that automation isn’t the boogie-man that’s killing the middle class. ([whisper] It’s the rich collecting excessive rents. [/whisper])

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    Watching sportsball contest between USC and Ole Miss. Is it not odd that in 2021 a sportsball team is named “Rebels?”

  19. 19.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    As a former small business owner/wage payer, I see that most of the people that have a difficult time finding employees fall into 3 categories, high skill needs, low pay assholes, both.

    If you have high skill needs and do not pay reasonably or better yet on the high side you have no one to blame but yourself.

    If you can not afford to pay people to work for you the problem isn’t the people, it’s the business you are in and how you run it.

    If you can’t understand high skills and/or decent pay you need to work for someone else for a while, to see why you are such a shit.

    Like everything else you most often get what you pay for, and trying to sell your product/service with out paying for the work means you don’t give a fuck about the output, only your bank account, and you should fail for fucking employees.

    Think about the guy that gave everyone a raise and paid them and himself $70K/year and now has a very successful business.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    We could pay people to work.  Pass a law saying they can go back to work without losing their existing unemployment benefits.

  22. 22.

    BruceFromOhio

    The little craft brewery that i would hit once a week on the way home has survived. I ducked in there recently for a pickup order, and the place was buzzing. The bar maid REMEMBERED ME FROM A YEAR AGO. The same staff was serving. The customers were happy. I tipped them outrageously, and bought 3 “rounds for the kitchen”, please look for this item on the menu of your favorite stops.Why is this place rocking? They were forthright with their customers – “we’re closed because the State of Ohio said … and we will re-open as soon as we can! Order some takeout and beer to go while we wait!” – they treat their people well, the owner and his wife are peaches, and the clientele cared about the place. And the beer-food menus are heavenly.

    There are two other establishments just like this that we have done takeout from all through the pandemic, and all have survived for the same reason.

    This is not rocket science.​

    @Ruckus: ​  Yes, yes, yes. This x 16 jillion.​

  23. 23.

    hells littlest angel

    @Baud:They said raising the minimum wage would cost jobs because it would lead to automation.  Why won’t a labor shortage do the same thing? Where are the robots?

     

    Buying T-bone motor oil with their welfare checks.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @trollhattan:

    Watching sportsball contest between USC and Ole Miss. Is it not odd that in 2021 a sportsball team is named “Rebels?” 

    What about the other team being named after condoms?

  25. 25.

    germy

    The Biden administration has confirmed that the US will restrict travel from India starting on Tuesday in response to the surge of coronavirus cases and variants being observed in the country.

    “On the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Administration will restrict travel from India starting immediately,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Friday. “The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in the India. The policy will take effect on Tuesday, May 4.”

  27. 27.

    HumboldtBlue

    @trollhattan:

    Just think, less than 20 years ago you could attend an Ole Miss game with all the racist tropes, images and history on full display. Remember, it was only in this century they forced the crowd to stop shouting “the South will rise again” because it was an insult to the parents of their black players who shared the stands.

  28. 28.

    JaneE

    Even before the pandemic I saw a lot of help wanted signs around town.  Many of those signs had been up for months on end.

    And yet

    There are other businesses who never have signs up.  On the contrary, I have seen people walk in off the street and ask for a job application.  They are told that they don’t need any more help at the time, and the people still want to put their applications in.

    And again

    There are a couple of places that really seem to have a revolving door.  Some of the positions are temporary seasonal stuff, but the ones I notice are the full time, quasi-responsible jobs.  Sometimes the supervisor(?) position changes more often than the temporary summer help.  You never heard why people left, either, and it was “see you on Thursday” but when Thursday came around they were gone never to be seen again.

    And finally

    There is a family that owns a lot of local businesses.  They are reputed to be “difficult” to work for and have a reputation of slow paying their vendors and having a fairly disgruntled work force, but they keep buying up all the businesses that couldn’t make it or had owners who wanted to retire and keeping the places open.  Not sure what to make of that.  Altruistic assholes?

    Not really a conclusion

    It is or is not hard to find good or not so good help.   Good working conditions matter, as does money.  There isn’t one story that covers all the reasons people can’t find help or can’t find jobs.  During the pandemic I saw a few people I knew in new jobs that opened up because of the changes that were made.  Would they go back to their old jobs, if they are still there?  Will their new job go away when things get back to normal?  Those are in addition to all the other employment issues that have always been there.  Anytime someone says there is “a” reason for their problems, they are probably just fooling themselves or trying to fool someone else.

  29. 29.

    RSA

    WSJ: Employers are suffering

    Funny thing: employers have the same access to the social safety net as everyone else. Maybe a rising net could raise all boats? But no, that would be “socialism”.

  31. 31.

    Mike in NC

    @trollhattan: About 20 years ago we went to see Navy play UVA in Charlottesville. The “mascot” was a guy on a horse, which I assumed to be JEB Stuart or some other Confederate character. It was explained to me that he was known as “The Cavalier”.

  34. 34.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: What about the other team being named after condoms?

    Thanks, I never thought to ask “why are they named after the losers”?  Now I know — and knowing is half the battle.

  37. 37.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Mike in NC: ​ That makes sense, the school’s mascot is the Cavalier which hearkens back to Virginia’s founding as a state.David Hackett Fischer wrote a book about theEnglish settlers in America and it’s great.Albion’s Seed​

  38. 38.

    Mart

    Used to tour a godawful recycling plant that paid $7 whatever an hour. Unemployment was very low and the manager spent most the day bitching at me how benefits were too good as people would rather get unemployment than work there. I kept my mouth shut, mostly to keep from breathing in the nasty ass dust. But I thought no shit, I’d rather do most any shit paying job than this one.

  40. 40.

    MazeDancer

    Right now, in Memphis, TN, there are zero home health aides available. No agencies have any. Tried for a week to hire some.

    One agency owner said she had booked and confirmed interviews to hire new staff and had 11 no shows. The only person who showed refused to get vaxxed, which rules you out for elder care.

    She pays $12.50 an hour which she says is high for Memphis. Which is, of course, criminally low.

    In FL, McDonalds is offering $15 an hour, free meals, and 50 bucks just to interview.

    Hoping all of this will boost wages. Somehow.

    Or Mr. Biden’s Elder Care Infrastructure happens.

  42. 42.

    realbtl

    Here in Montana the help wanted signs say 16/hr and there are a bunch.  My 17 yo grandson with little experience got hired by TruGreen for that.

  44. 44.

    Kent

    @MazeDancer:

    Right now, in Memphis, TN, there are zero home health aides available. No agencies have any. Tried for a week to hire some.

    One agency owner said she had booked and confirmed interviews to hire new staff and had 11 no shows. The only person who showed refused to get vaxxed, which rules you out for elder care.

    She pays $12.50 an hour which she says is high for Memphis. Which is, of course, criminally low.

    In FL, McDonalds is offering $15 an hour, free meals, and 50 bucks just to interview.

    Hoping all of this will boost wages. Somehow.

    Or Mr. Biden’s Elder Care Infrastructure happens.

    Can you just hire someone direct and cut out the middle man (or middle woman) and pay them $20/hr or whatever the agency charges you?

  45. 45.

    Dan B

    @mrmoshpotato: Waiting for all the robot dog bands.  How long must I wait?

     

    Great laugh at the jaw dropping craziness*.  Thanks!

    *As in in whoa and wow at the same time.  And this may be how you play an F flat chord.  Thanks Boston Dynamics?

  47. 47.

    Dan B

    @Ruckus: 30 years as a (very) small business owner.  I had many years of great employess, and some ringers.  Many years they earned the same as me and a few good ones I made out verrry well.  It’s great to have employees that make you look good.  Business schools don’t teach this.  Or at least rent seekers believe there are superior people and poor fools.

  48. 48.

    Kent

    I have a MAGA cousin who bailed on a corporate career to become a franchise owner.  He was a project manager type who would bounce from firm to firm in the greater Seattle metro so I assume he was just your basic asshole who was hard to work with.

    I was talking with him recently because our kids are friends and we hook them up from time to time and he was making some of these same wails.  It was all…”Dude, I can’t afford to pay more because my franchise fees are X and my rent is Y and my suppliers cost Z, etc. etc.    And I’m just thinking.  “But hey, you have FREEDOM to be your on boss!  That ‘s priceless!”

    I think a lot of these small business owners buy into the fantasy of being their own boss and making a lot of money.   But they don’t actually take a hard look at the math.  Especially in things like fast food which really can’t be scaled up.  There are only so many sandwiches or pizzas you can make per day.

  50. 50.

    Patricia Kayden

    114 days ago terrorists ransacked the US Capitol and *hours later* 138-of-202 (68%) House republicans voted to make trump a dictator. They tried to finish the rioters’ job and end democracy. Never forget it.— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) May 1, 2021

  54. 54.

    Soprano2

    I think there are a lot of factors making the job market like this right now. Everyone is trying to hire people at the same time, which is an unusual circumstance. The almost complete shutdown of immigration is biting badly, too – this is something a lot of employers don’t want to admit. A significant number of women had to drop out of the job market either because of remote school or the unavailability of childcare. Especially in the restaurant/bar industry, people got other jobs while things were closed down or at 25% capacity, and they’re still doing those jobs. There are still a significant amount of people who can’t pass a drug test if the employer requires one. Everyone I talk to about it, though, says it’s the unemployment and if only the government would quit giving people money they’d want to work. I reject this as the only explanation, because it’s lazy. I think there are also a number of people who aren’t vaccinated yet and are afraid to go back to jobs where they have to face the public. I know of one restaurant that had to start closing at 3:00 p.m. again on Monday thru Thursday because they couldn’t find enough staff. I know of another that’s contemplating closing their dining rooms because of the staff shortage, and just doing drive-thru business. I’m hoping as more and more people get vaccinated the situation will get better.

  55. 55.

    Amir Khalid

    Hello everone. It’s the first of May on my side of the International Date Line: Labour Day everywhere on the planet except the USA.

  57. 57.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Soprano2: ” …if only the government would stop giving them money…”  they’d be desperate enough to take my starvation wages.

    That’s the reality there.

  58. 58.

    Another Scott

    @Kent: Yup.

    I worked for a while in the business office of a company that owned about 50 pizza stores.  They would occasionally get threatening legal documents from corporate saying things like: “You MUST do THIS and THIS and THIS to prove to us that you’re you’re not keeping excess cash in your stores, and do so by certified mail by 5 PM TOMORROW or WE WILL TERMINATE YOUR FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS.”

    I don’t think the dog and pony shows that talk about Being Your Own Boss!! mention that.  Could be wrong.

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  61. 61.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Oh yes, mango is much beloved. Tarbooj is humble, fat and ugly in comparison with the noble mango. Tarbooj is his moniker on Marathi Twitter

    They were mocking him to his face when he showed up at a hospital for a photo-op and like all cowardly RWNJs he ran away.

  63. 63.

    RSA

    @MazeDancer:

    Right now, in Memphis, TN, there are zero home health aides available. No agencies have any. Tried for a week to hire some.

    I’m sorry to hear that. When I was in NC, I went through a few home healthcare services.  The rates were $20-25 per hour, with the aides earning $12-15.  It wasn’t easy to find the right person (reliable, conscientious) and in the end I did as @Kent  suggests, and found an independent person.

    I think that home healthcare aides are shamefully underpaid.  On the other side, a lot of people who need an aide can’t afford one–Medicare, for example, covers some kinds of intermittent care, but not so-called custodial care. (My experience is with Alzheimer’s spouse communities, which is kind of specialized, but on the most needful end of the scale, I think.)

    I think Biden’s initiative could make a huge difference.

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    But, but, but! It was on the TV! and the Internet!! and FaceBook!!11 It must be true!!1ONE

    Newsmax publicly admits what we all knew – that the conservative network was actively broadcasting false claims of election fraud in 2020 related to Dominion voting machines. Link to the Newsmax statement âŹ‡ïžhttps://t.co/53QisoSgaT pic.twitter.com/yT4QZ5SSwn

    — Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) April 30, 2021

    (via Popehat)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    Barbara

    @Kent: One of the owners of a small children’s shoe store I patronized (now retired and no longer in business) told me that the biggest mistake she saw among many other small business owners was that they didn’t realize how few people they could really support from the business.  Which is to say that she did almost everything herself in order to pay herself a reasonable income.

  70. 70.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: Is Newsmax one of the ones that Dominion has sued?  I don’t see how an admission that Dominion is right would help their defense, whether or not the suit has been filed.

  72. 72.

    The Moar You Know

    Is Newsmax one of the ones that Dominion has sued?  I don’t see how an admission that Dominion is right would help their defense, whether or not the suit has been filed.

    @Ken:  yes, but this is part of a settlement of a separate lawsuit with a specific Dominion executive that Newsmax slandered by name.    The Dominion lawsuit is still out there waiting.

  74. 74.

    Roger Moore

    @different-church-lady: ​
     

    I do wonder if we’re going to stop giving restaurant waitstaff wages that are so third-world level that the diners are pretty much obligated to directly provide them with all of their income.

    Some places have already done so. The whole West Coast does not have a lower minimum wage for tipped employees, which means waitstaff can actually make a decent living. Instead of driving restaurants out of business, it means they can actually have long-term employees who treat their work as a career. It’s a great point to make when people suggest businesses can’t afford to pay employees more.

  75. 75.

    Another Scott

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yup.

    Deadline:

    In a statement posted on its website, the media outlet said, “Newsmax would like to clarify its coverage of Dr. Coomer and note that while Newsmax initially covered claims by President Trump’s lawyers, supporters and others that Dr. Coomer played a role in manipulating Dominion voting machines, Dominion voting software, and the final vote counts in the 2020 presidential election, Newsmax subsequently found no evidence that such allegations were true. Many of the states whose results were contested by the Trump campaign after the November 2020 election have conducted extensive recounts and audits, and each of these states certified the results as legal and final.”

    Coomer’s attorney, Steve Skarnulis, confirmed the settlement but said that the terms were confidential.

    In his lawsuit, filed in December in Colorado, Coomer’s attorneys wrote in their complaint that Coomer “has been vilified and subjected to an onslaught of offensive messages and harassment. In response to multiple credible death threats, Dr. Coomer has been forced to leave his home in fear for his safety.”

    In its statement, Newsmax said, “On behalf of Newsmax, we would like to apologize for any harm that our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family.”

    Even though the claims against Newsmax were dismissed, the litigation remains ongoing, as a number of other defendants were named in Coomer’s lawsuit. They included the Trump campaign, attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, and media figures and commentators like Michelle Malkin and Chanel Rion. Also named was another outlet, One America News Network, which has garnered attention for its steadfast defense of the former president.

    […]

    Dominion Voting Systems has filed lawsuits against Giuliani and Powell and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for spreading conspiracy theories about the company, and last month, the company sued Fox News for $1.6 billion. The network has defended its reporting, and called the lawsuit “baseless.” Fox News also has asked a judge to dismiss a defamation case filed by another election systems company, Smartmatic. Among other things, the network contends that their coverage was protected by the First Amendment as it was focused on claims made by the then-president and his allies.

    (Emphasis added.)

    Dominion and her people will be getting apologies and money from all of them, most likely.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @Kent: ​
     

    It was all
”Dude, I can’t afford to pay more because my franchise fees are X and my rent is Y and my suppliers cost Z, etc. etc. And I’m just thinking. “But hey, you have FREEDOM to be your on boss! That ‘s priceless!”

    What he’s really saying is that he isn’t the boss. The real boss is the company he’s franchising from. They tell him what he needs to buy and how much he’s going to pay for it. He’s just a glorified middle manager who bought into a sucker’s dream.

  78. 78.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Bombshell DAILY
    Bomb
    @BombshellDAILY

    FEDERAL AGENTS CLOSE IN ON IVANKA’S INAUGURATION CRIMES

    New York prosecutors have evidence to implicate first daughter criminally.

    It’s SDNY.

    Tick tock, mutherfucker

  79. 79.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    How just, Ivanka is now going to know what it is like to live in a cage.

  81. 81.

    Villago Delenda Est

    WSJ: Employers are suffering

    The WSJ editorial board needs to be early on in the tumbrel rides.

  83. 83.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    This is interesting, there’s new opening for a spokesmodel at Goya

  85. 85.

    dmsilev

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The WSJ editorial board needs to be early on in the tumbrel rides.

    Best to use language that they’d understand: “They need to be in the senior tranche of tumbrel riders.”

  86. 86.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Bloomberg had an article talking about how a lot of Boomers have decided  the pandemic is a sign to retire. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of this “I can’t hire more staff because people are too lazy to work for shitty wages in shitty working conditions” is because of all the collage grads who’ve been blocked from starting their careers by overly picky employers now can.

  88. 88.

    Another Scott

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Watch the federal government.

    GovExec:

    Employees planning to retire in less than one year represented 3% of respondents pre-pandemic, and that number increased to 4% after the coronavirus wreaked havoc with Americans’ working and personal lives.

    Of those who reported that their retirement plans had changed since the pre-pandemic days, almost 40% said Covid-19 was the reason. Sixty-two percent said Covid wasn’t the motivation.

    It certainly seems that the pandemic didn’t send employees rushing for the exits. Part of the reason may be that many of them apparently enjoyed the shift to maximum telework. During the peak of the pandemic, 59 percent of employees teleworked every day, compared to 3% who did so every day before the pandemic.

    That may have led some people to delay, or at least not accelerate, plans to move on. According to OPM’s retirement processing statistics, the number of retirement claims the agency received dropped by 10% from 2019 to 2020, from 101,580 to 92,088.

    In the first three months of 2021, the number of claims dropped again, from 32,973 during the same period in 2020 to 31,009 this year. Whether or not the drop is due to the pandemic, there’s certainly no long-expected “retirement tsunami” under way. But there has been a slow but steady increase in retirement claims in recent years.

    In January 2020, 15% of the federal workforce was eligible to retire.

    People will stick around if they think the reward/annoyance ratio is high enough. COVID probably won’t figure into it too much.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  89. 89.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Another Scott: Whether or not the drop is due to the pandemic, there’s certainly no long-expected “retirement tsunami” under way. But there has been a slow but steady increase in retirement claims in recent years.

    That makes sense, the expect retirements happened last year, they were transparent because the shut down hid them, and now things are opening up so it looks like a lot, because teh maths are hard.

    Were I work we had three people in the department who were 65 and marking time to 67 and said screw it last year.

  93. 93.

    Benno

    @schrodingers_cat: interesting. Here in Karachi (non-native resident)  tarbooz is the much beloved watermelon while karbooz is cantaloupe. Took me some time to keep them straight, which is unfortunate because I hate cantaloupe.

  94. 94.

    Craig

    @trollhattan: my High School finally changed its name from Lee-Davis HS, and Stonewall Jackson Middle School has finally changed just this year. Not sure what they’re doing about the sorts teams, but I’m sure that Confederates, and Rebels are going to be ok finally

  95. 95.

    Kent

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:Bloomberg had an article talking about how a lot of Boomers have decided  the pandemic is a sign to retire. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of this “I can’t hire more staff because people are too lazy to work for shitty wages in shitty working conditions” is because of all the collage grads who’ve been blocked from starting their careers by overly picky employers now can.

    I’m hoping this is going to be the case.  My oldest daughter just graduated into the teeth of the pandemic in May 2020 with a degree in marketing and public relations with a specialty interest in travel and leisure (hotels, airlines, cruise lines, resorts, etc.).  Talk about your sucky timing.

    She has made the best of it by landing a job in the business office of a ski resort here in OR for the ski season where she could snowboard every day, and is now planning to work the summer at a surf shop on the beach where she can surf every day while she waits to land her first “big girl” job next fall.  But she is threatening to snowboard another winter first.

  96. 96.

    Kent

     @Another Scott: A lot of older Feds saw their TSP account balances shoot sky high this past year (Federal version of a 401(k)) so I’m betting that will case some to finally decide to jump ship.

  99. 99.

    boatboy_srq

    RE: the Rubio tweet.

    When I left FL for NoVA, my friends down South all said, “Don’t move to Virginia; they tax.”

    It’s true: I pay 6% in state income tax, and a couple hundred in tangible property tax for my car.

    Moving up here, I took: a demotion; loss of staff; loss of signing authority; loss of title; loss of overtime (or excess hours, depending).

    I doubled my salary doing it. And my benefits got a lot better.

    My auto insurance dropped by half and my coverage tripled. My utility bill dropped. My grocery bill dropped. I rented my apartment, but had I rented my condo in FL it would have cost as much.

    I will pay 6% state income tax and a few hundreds in personal property tax for all of that.

    Rubio is a flaming arsehole if he thinks FL employers are offering anything labor is interested in accepting as compensation.

  101. 101.

    boatboy_srq

    @RSA: Maybe they shouldn’t have spent their CARES Act PPP funds on expansions or stock buybacks or whatever it is that wasn’t employee paychecks.

  102. 102.

    L85NJGT

    Even if there is no instant wave of Boomer retirements, the cohorts behind them are smaller.

    Big companies can and do invest in shaving labor hours off the line, and employee benefits like tuition assistance and 401Ks. Your local TIFF skimmer, cashing in on the latest bar & restaurant fad, doesn’t have the margins.

    I get the vibe that these O-O types are really complaining about a lack of white applicants. Particularly for front of house roles.

    Pay rate isn’t everything. Lifestyle issues, gender norms, and vast swaths of the country making themselves unattractive to immigrants are significant factors.

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @Dan B:

    Often people with money think that the money is what makes them better. They are known as republicans. For the most part. Rugged, fearless, heartless, ignorant fucks who think that money is what is best and the more money you have the better you are. Their lives are really meaningless, misguided, train wrecks. Look at all the wonderful assholes that think they are politicians, with an R. It has been this way for all my lifetime, 70+ yrs. It was this way before that. Conservatives think of no one but themselves. They think they are superior because they think only of themselves, and because they got shortchanged on melanin, when what they really got shortchanged on was humanity. Selfish, ignorant, ugly, useless creatures.

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