Sunday, July 09, 2017

I Guess You Don't Value Your Own Time Very Much?

I don't really believe he's spending that much time recruiting, but if we take it at face value, not only does he not think workers are worth anything, he thinks he isn't either!

That’s a familiar problem to Tom Thompson, owner of Star Cleaning Systems in Columbus, Ohio. He is looking to add two or three part-time workers to his 20-member staff.

“Very few people show up for interviews, and if they do, they don’t show up for the job,” Mr. Thompson said. “I’m spending 80 to 90 percent of my time recruiting. I triple-book appointments for interviews, and I’m lucky if I get one person to show up.”

He is offering $9.25 an hour to start, with bonuses and increases for workers who stick around. Running a new company, he said, he cannot afford to pay significantly more.

How about a little more? And, you know, if that "80 to 90 percent of my time" could be spent, say, getting more business...

Anyway, for years economists, were obsessed with wages being "downward sticky," as in lamenting the tragedy that during a recession wages wouldn't just magically fall so that we could achieve full employment poverty through the magic of the marketplace. 9 years after the Great Recession we should understand that wages have become "upward sticky." Bosses believe it is their God given right to never give a raise, and if they have to it means there's something wrong with the economy. Related: the Fed needs to raise rates despite the fact that they don't hit their own inflation target because reasons.