Bar and resto owners say they lack staff
As restaurants prepare to open their terrasses, owners are complaining that nobody wants to work for them.
There’s one tried-and-true way to attract more people to work for you. Offer them more money.
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Kate
Reply
steph 10:25 on 2021-05-27 Permalink
Boohoo, Sergakis and his bottom line..
The Quebec bar owners association would do themselves a favor and dump Sergakis as a spokes person. I can’t be the only person with a kneejerk reaction of complete dismissal as soon as I see his name in the press.
What’s the deal with the “Quebec bar owners association” anyways? Did it even exist before Sergakis? Did he create it himself for his self-interest
Ephraim 10:51 on 2021-05-27 Permalink
Ah Sergakis… fined a few times for violations of his licencing including transfering alcohol from one bottle to another, having hard alcohol without a licence and of course there is the underpours… https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/beer-measuring-test-shows-some-bars-served-5-oz-less-than-advertised-1.2668968 and of course, if he skims that way, who knows on what else he’s skimming or skimping. Thanks, but no thanks. Makes the whole association questionable.
GC 13:09 on 2021-05-27 Permalink
You are definitely not the only one, steph. My eyes are primed to roll whenever I see his name.
David530 14:58 on 2021-05-27 Permalink
I hate Sergakis, but there’s an interesting discussion emerging in some economics circles right now around UBI in the US. Basically, as the data there show more and more clearly, it’s not just that people would rather do nothing rather than work if the wage is the same, we’re seeing a phenomenon in which wage increases produce a negligible increase in applicants for open positions, and labor shortages are present in sectors that pay significantly more than sitting at home with the government handout. Basically, the discovery is that there’s a large cohort – far larger than most people anticipated – that will accept a steep reduction in income in exchange for free time. That is, when you give people even a modest UBI that meets their basic needs, a very large number will drop out of the labor force altogether. Biden’s own economics team ruled out childcare as a motivation as well, so it’s really just down to work and more money v. not work and less but acceptable money. While this is not too surprising if you know what sort of deadbeat the average person is, it’s very surprisingly to many economics types, who assume that everyone has the inmate desire to work, strive, succeed, build wealth, etc. that they have.
I don’t really have an opinion either way. On the one hand, redistributing wealth (or plowing thw government into colossal debt, as Trudeau has been doing since he conned his way into office) is good for the economy and will spur investment in automation, which will drive productivity growth and push us toward the Star Trek post-scarcity future. On the other hand, if this type of labor market distortion continues, it’s going to be massively inflationary across the board, and could lead to the non-viability of many businesses on persistent labor shortages – cool businesses like your local shops and restaurants.
At any rate, it seems clear that no matter the situation covid-wise, the labor shortages won’t meaningfully subside until the government turns off the free money tap.
jeather 16:19 on 2021-05-27 Permalink
What I have seen is that it’s very, very dependent on the job. People are perfectly happy to work at Amazon or Costco etc, but maybe they are feeling unsafe about restaurants — full of people breathing out on them, usually no paid sick time, often unpredictable scheduling, plus they were all, you know, fired last spring — or grocery stores — now full of maskless individuals, little to no paid sick time, unpredictable scheduling. We’ll find out more eventually, but “take a pay cut to stay home vs have a shitty, dangerous job with risk but no health insurance or sick days” is not exactly irrational. (I haven’t seen the stats about childcare but am more than a bit disbelieving that it has no effect.)
Kate 16:46 on 2021-05-27 Permalink
david∞, please read what jeather says.
I never like the argument that you need to threaten people with starvation so they will do lousy, dangerous or underpaid jobs.
dmdiem 17:13 on 2021-05-27 Permalink
Ugh. The old “people are lazy” argument against UBI. Every time someone has used that argument I always ask them, “if you got a UBI would you quit working?” The answer is always, “Of course not! I’m a real go-getter! I’m motivated and disciplined!” Every… single… time.
The reason why the “people are lazy” argument is complete bullshit is simple. People get bored really fucking quickly. If you want proof, just look at the past year. Home renovation was through the roof. People learned to cook and bake bread to the point there was a flour shortage. People took online courses en mass to upgrade their knowledge base in hopes of a better job. People started podcasts and YouTube channels in droves. And on and on and on. Now imagine what people could’ve accomplished if they were actually allowed to go outside.
You want people to go back to a shitty job? Let them keep the UBI they getting now AND let them collect a wage in addition. I guarantee they’ll be lining up to work.
dhomas 06:29 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
I guess getting democratically elected is a “con” now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mitchell 06:42 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
David 530’s remarks don’t link to any sources, only the “there’s an interesting discussion emerging in some economics circles.” Oh really? Which economic circles? Seems like Republican talking points to me.