Labor shortage or terrible jobs?
This article unfortunately doesn&#x27;t address the business side of the problem.  Fast food restaurants, or place like &quot;Dale&#x27;s&quot; mentioned in the article, make very little profit.  It is most likely below 10%.  Here is an estimate:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.restaurant365.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;what-is-the-average-profit-margin-for-a-restaurant&#x2F;#:~:text=Although factors like franchise affiliation,rate due to faster service" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.restaurant365.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;what-is-the-average-profi...</a>.<p>A 10% profit is very modest.  That&#x27;s not the story of the &quot;fat cats getting rich on the back of the workers&quot; that the article is alluding to.<p>The problem for the business is that the financial model is set by the fixed or imperative costs, i.e. the cost of rent, the cost of maintaining the capital equipment, the cost of cleaning to meet codes, insurance, etc.  The cost of labor, for cooks, wait staff, etc. is often the biggest part of the expense budget for restaurants.<p>With such a small profit margin, arbitrarily raising everyone&#x27;s wages is likely going to kill the business.  There is no room in the budget.  The only choice is to either automate, which will reduce the labor requirements, or raise prices and hope that customers won&#x27;t just go down the street.  But they will, they will go down the street--until everyone&#x27;s prices go up and there is nowhere else to go.  And all of this is free market capitalism at work.  It is a continuous process of reinvention.<p>In short, I&#x27;m not saying that higher wages aren&#x27;t necessary, I&#x27;m just saying that both sides of the equation need to be examined, i.e. the plight of the worker AND the plight of the business.  And we need to understand that things will probably get ugly before they get better.  Because that&#x27;s how capitalism and free market economies work.<p>But watch out for technology and automation...that is the part of the equation that has been &quot;solving&quot; the labor problem for some time now...