I don't understand the mentality of people who are mad because other people are being paid well.

The reasons for the US labor shortage are many. A large percentage of older workers retired early during the pandemic. Child care disappeared, so somebody had to stay home. Jobs don’t offer benefits, which is what employees need, especially health care. Jobs don’t offer full-time hours, so you can’t pay your bills. Jobs don’t offer flexible hours for personal needs, like doctor appointments. The pandemic unemployment payments ended quite a while ago. Many customer-facing jobs are just too stressful and abusive to make the effort worthwhile for a lot of people. Etc., etc.

These jobs aren't easy. They are incredibly stressful. Additionally, if these workers are kids in school, then they DEFINITELY should be getting a living wage because college is EXPENSIVE. I had to pay for tuition plus food and housing. I couldn't find an employer willing to hire an undergrad FT, so instead I worked 3 PT jobs aside from my classes to afford university. It would have been great if I could have found this job and only worked the one job as a student. My grades would have been better and I wouldn't have slept through class. Or on the road between commutes...

i have a family member who insists ppl aren't working low wage jobs because they are getting 'free' money via unemployment, stimulus, etc. when i point out that there has been no stimulus & pandemic unemployment benefit program has ended then he says higher wages causing increased prices. well, kind of because wage/profit has to balance. finally was able to get him to understand that many who used to work low wage did things during lockdown that made them realize their own worth such as starting own business, online classes, & just the ability to be able to job search for better paying jobs when lockdown ended as you can't afford to take days off to look for new job. those fast food jobs at the old min. wage was fine for high schools students for extra cash but no one could afford to live off those wages without having to consider applying for supportive programs such as snap. now that ppl have realized their worth they need to push for form of universal healthcare as that is a right.

Supply and demand. If people aren't willing to trade their time for the amount you are paying, you need to pay more.

I heard someone saying: “Nobody wanted to work to begin with, that’s the point of paying us. We’ve just become more expensive. If you can’t afford us, tough s**t”. Nobody dreams of career in fast dining, so don’t be shocked you have to incentivize people somehow to work for you.

This is how capitalism works, people. If you offer to buy something and people say no - for WHATEVER reason - you raise the price till they say yes. Does not matter if the government is preventing people from starving to death by giving away barely enough food to live on, or if they are paying unemployed people huge salaries to not work. Still have to raise your offer, either way. Trying to get the government to change it's policies to help your business is never the right move, even if the government is wrong. You are competing with the other businesses and the best businesses will always survive and the worst ones will always die.

Jeff Bezos makes $13.4 MILLION per HOUR. I think that is out of line too! Working people deserve as much as they can get.

The idea that a fast food place is for skill-less teenagers making pocket money rests on three outdated concepts: 1) the job market is open enough that teens are the only workers available for menial work, 2) those teenagers are doing this work for extra pocket money and not as a supplemental or primary breadwinner, 3) the business staffs well enough that "unreliable" teens are not necessary for the business to function, just as backup help cleaning/waiting/etc.

If fast food jobs were truly "intended for 16 year olds," they would be closed during the school day, right? Stop making excuses.

There is no shortage of workers. There is a shortage of workers willing to continue putting up with sh*t wages and sh*t conditions. There's also some indications that ocmpanies aren't hiring specifically to save the money.

D***s is an institution. Seattle also has a minimum wage of $16.69 which is still a good wage. For the owners to bump it up further is awesome. Hell, I work in an office and make $19 an hour. Minimum wage where I live is $12.75.

This extends to regular sit down restaurants like Montana Mike's (Texas) and say Red Lobster.They wouldn't have to lean on you for tips if they paid reasonable wages. I remember working at one of this nations Then best haute Cuisine restaurants in L.A. while stationed in Long Beach. I worked the Evening shift four days a week. $4.45 an hour plus tips. Of course my tips (shared) yes Shared made it worth it, it still was demeaning. That I had to hope my tips would help me pay the rent on an apartment off base for my family because base housing was full(What hadn't been condemned!) Turns out thanks to Folks from Hollywood looking for a private place to eat with close friends and family away from the then press netted me usually $200.00 a nite after sharing! A Good BUS team was worth the sharing. Those two never let me look bad. So I shared well!

Kent WA Average 1 bedroom apartment 1560 Average home price 580,500 20$ @ 40 hours is 3200 IF you are full time THIS IS NOT A LIVING WAGE! IT IS MINIMUM WAGE COMPARED TO THE COST OF LIVING!

Thing is, if you can't afford to pay your employees a livable wage, you can't afford to run a business. Period.

Wait- there's more. D**k's also pays their employees if they volunteer in communities AND do scholarships. They've been in business for decades, have had excellent food and service too. Usually it's kids in college who work there but there are people who work full time. That company takes care of their employees and their customers and it shows. All you naysayers do not know what you're talking about. I've been going there since the late 70s when it was down the street from my Grandmother's house in Wallingford.

16 year olds should get paid 20$ an hour for their first job so they never settle for anything less. This weird attitude of making the youth suffer because…it builds character or I suffered so why shouldn’t they is so backwards.

"Do you want to know why you're (sic) living cost (sic) and everything around you is so freaking expensive Seattle is a fail" Oof.

D**k’s is one of the few fast food places I’d consider eating at because the food is good and the workers get paid a real wage.

coffee shop and bakery have always had signs that they pay a living wage, a little more expensive but worth every penny. In business for years now.

People "shouldn't" make that much per hour? What a bizarre comment! The employer can pay what they want. It's enough for staff to want to work there and tenable for the business. What's "shouldn't" about it?

I love how these business's fail to acknowledge to business that are fully staffed and profitable. They know once they increase pay they'll never be able to lower it or raise prices.

Anyone feeling that michaelrobertson861 is insinuating that people who are younger should be paid less for the same job. It's coming off as ageist.

The biggest problem with this whole argument is what a person needs on the West Coast or a major city, to live is not what a person in middle America or the Southern states needs to live. The cost of living in an area should dictate the wages, but the cost of living on the West Coast and major cities is 20x that of the average place in the US. You can't base the wages on the highest cost of living areas for the entire country. Problem is when you do base it off the cost of the highest area for the country you raise the cost of living across the US as a whole. It is what has happened every time wages have gone up, the cost of living goes up to match it. We have hundreds of years of data showing that is the case if you take the time to look. Maybe just maybe the major cities need to look at what they are charging for things and realize that it is unsustainable to keep raising the prices. Example a house with materials cost of 100k total to build should not be worth 2 million.

I agree, everyone should be paid a living wage. With that said, I will raise hell if I have to work twice as hard for the same amount of money as the dumbass who spends all day talking on her phone, on speaker!