Not to mention that raising wages really only helps localized labor shortages.
If you raise wages and get employees from your competitor, then you’ve moved the labor shortage to another company but it still exists.
The only way raising wages helps with a labor shortage is if you hire from a pool of people either currently unemployed or people working in a field with a labor surplus. For the latter, I don’t know what fields have a labor surplus right now and it’s uncommon for people to be skilled enough to do two completely different skilled labor jobs that are worth equal pay that this can be an option for the company.
For the second group, hiring the unemployed, $10 an hour is already significantly more than $0. So if you think raising it more would make a difference, you need to explain what $11 an hour would do that $10 doesn’t.
For instance, some people can’t work because the cost of daycare exceeds the income they’d bring in. Raising wages could change that formula… though I’ve also heard from daycare operators that they are dealing with a labor shortage. If they raise wages then they raise daycare costs then other companies need to raise their wages even more.
Some people can’t work because school is doing remote learning. These people can’t work no matter what the wages offered are.
If you raise wages and get employees from your competitor, then you’ve moved the labor shortage to another company but it still exists.
The only way raising wages helps with a labor shortage is if you hire from a pool of people either currently unemployed or people working in a field with a labor surplus. For the latter, I don’t know what fields have a labor surplus right now and it’s uncommon for people to be skilled enough to do two completely different skilled labor jobs that are worth equal pay that this can be an option for the company.
For the second group, hiring the unemployed, $10 an hour is already significantly more than $0. So if you think raising it more would make a difference, you need to explain what $11 an hour would do that $10 doesn’t.
For instance, some people can’t work because the cost of daycare exceeds the income they’d bring in. Raising wages could change that formula… though I’ve also heard from daycare operators that they are dealing with a labor shortage. If they raise wages then they raise daycare costs then other companies need to raise their wages even more.
Some people can’t work because school is doing remote learning. These people can’t work no matter what the wages offered are.