Time to Pay a Decent Wage/FB Page

 

First, our blog Facebook page is again accepting posts. Apparently we had to authenticate again, even though we had done so a few years ago. All unposted blogs from Shoalanda and Shoals Crime are now on the page. If you've previously viewed the offerings on our personal page, there's nothing new, so just ignore them. 

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There's much to be said both pro and con for raising the minimum wage. A reader sent us this take on hospitality workers leaving for greener pastures:

This from the industry people. We are not being heard. Ok, so Alabama's unemployment rate is 3.8%. Which is lower than it was prepandemic. The whole "Nobody wants to work" saying is really biting me in the ***. As a hospitality worker, let me enlighten you non-hospitality workers on a few, cold, hard facts. 

#1. When the pandemic started and everything shut down, we were laid off. Yes, we drew unemployment a few weeks. But when our businesses opened back up, if we didn't go back, our benefits ceased. Period. 

#2. We didn't feel safe was not an option, so we found better jobs that were either remote from home or paid better. 

#3. We finally realized we don't have to work every night, weekend, holiday to provide for our families. We can so do better. So we did. 

#4. When employers got that PPP, several did not bring back employees nor compensated the ones that were there. 

Yet no one is talking about that. I personally know not a soul riding out unemployment. I do however have several friends that found a better way of life that doesn't involve a base pay of 2.13 an hour to deal with ***holes who expect great service with subpar pay. 

When all this started "If you're so afraid stay home" was everywhere. Now you're pissed they stayed home? "Fast food is the bottom, find a better job." They did, and now your ****ed? 

Let's not forget the lives that were lost from covid because they worked guess what "hospitality." When the extra unemployment runs out, we will still have a shortage of employees in the industry. Because people have moved on and learned trades, went back to school, and bettered themselves like everyone on the internet told them to. 

The problem is not lazy people (which they are out there, nothing new.) The problem is people realize they deserve a living wage and they found a way to make that happen. People are leaving the service industry in droves because they are not being paid fairly, treated fairly and they are Tired! 

And before you come at me, I still work at a restaurant. Let me also add, as a single Mom at a point in my life, the industry helped me raise my kids. Right now, single Mom's have also started working from home while also homeschooling which is not easy. And big majority of waitresses and bartenders are single Moms. So there is another reason why 'No one wants to work."