Service Workers Aren’t Returning to Work Because They Don’t Get Paid Enough
On the window of a barbecue restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a taped sign reads: “Due to lack of staff our inhouse will be closed until further notice.” Another sign on display at the restaurant reads, “We are short-staffed. Please be patient with the staff that did show up. No one wants to work anymore.” Over the past few weeks, several national and local news outlets have reported stories about businesses unable to reopen their doors due to the lack of job applicants. A Wall Street Journal report found that one of the reasons those surveyed gave for not returning to work was they were getting more money from unemployment programs. They also mentioned fear of contracting COVID and lack of child care.
This is supposed to trigger an alarm, especially in a place like the United States, whose national identity is based upon being the home of hard workers and free enterprise. President Biden has said repeatedly that Americans “aren’t looking for a handout” and that we want to work. This is all a part of the American mythology, that we all enjoy the feeling of a good, long day's labor, and that America was built on this tenacity and industry. Though this platitude is often repeated, the truth is that America was built on exploitation. The country we know was made possible by the enslavement of African people, seizure of land and forced displacement of Native peoples, and a capitalist system that forces people into working long hours for low pay to provide for basic needs like food and shelter.
The problem, if you see it as one, isn’t that people are refusing to work because of unemployment benefits and federal assistance, but that wages are so low people are getting more money from the government dole. If you’re expecting people to willingly opt into being exploited for such pathetic wages then you are clearly mistaken about what people in this country truly want. After receiving several stimulus checks, weekly unemployment payments, and in some cases rental assistance, perhaps some Americans have decided they don’t really hate socialism after all.
