Capitalists are playing the victim card again.
Plastered over the windows of fast-food restaurants across the U.S. are sloppily taped printer-paper signs begging for hirees to work for low wages, claiming that “No one wants to work anymore”.
“No one wants to work anymore” is the new “All my exes are crazy”.
While it’s common sense that the latter statement is a major red flag in seeking a partner, the former statement is a red flag too. If your date can’t seem to admit that they’re the problem in their relationships, then bosses hiring for $11 an hour during a pandemic clearly can’t either.
If you’re hiring for horribly low wages, so low that unemployment checks are paying people more than you would pay them, then the problem isn’t that no one wants to work. The problem is that no one wants to work for you. The problem is that no one can afford to work for you.
However, when I say that no one wants to work for you anymore, I’m looking at two types of people; bosses and disrespectful customers.
It’s always the people who treat service workers like trash who complain these employees don’t “work hard”.
If there’s a group of people that doesn’t want to work, it’s definitely the people paying others to cook for them. Instead of cooking at home (which isn’t hard at all), you’re making someone else do it for you. And now you’re having an attitude with the employees over the food not being cooked to your picky taste. Well, stop being so lazy. Do it yourself. Cooking a burger isn’t too much work for you, is it? Recognize your hypocrisy.
Being on the frontlines and dealing with stubborn anti-maskers is exhausting. For this Washington Beer Blog article, people were asked why they were refusing to return to work for low-wage jobs. One anonymous person responded:
“Wages aren’t worth the risk or hassle of dealing with anti-maskers.”
Seen in videos on TikTok and other social media channels since the beginning of the pandemic, restaurant workers, gas station workers, and small shop workers have been berated, screamed at, and even assaulted and spit on by anti-maskers for simply asking customers to wear a mask as their company policy states. The treatment of workers by customers has been appalling, and bosses have done nothing to incentivize people to actually continue dealing with it.
The hesitancy of going back to work comes from a place of frustration as well as worry. While dealing with anti-maskers is frustrating indeed, the threat of catching the deadly coronavirus still wreaking havoc on the world is a real source of worry for many in and out of work. People with severe immune conditions and vulnerabilities to complications from viruses (and those living with family members who have conditions) often worry about the risk of getting sick, spreading it, and possibly dying, and companies are practically begging them to put their lives at risk for a meager starvation wage.
Among many popular rebuttals to raising the federal minimum hourly wage from $7.25 (which, due to inflation, is worth much less today than it was worth 30 years ago) to $15, one seems to be quite relevant here;
The same crowd who rebutted raising the minimum wage by asking — Why don’t low-wage workers just get better jobs? — Are now siding against workers for doing just that.
If a company refuses to respect workers with at least a $15 wage, then they don’t deserve workers.
It is not wrong to refuse a job that refuses you a living wage.
It is not wrong to receive unemployment during an unprecedented economic and public health disaster. There is a reason why the policy even exists.
Instead of offering a higher rate so people will want to take their job offers up, bosses have resulted to calling the entire workforce that can’t pay their bills with $11 an hour, lazy.
If you can’t afford your rent with $11 an hour, you’re lazy.
If you can’t pay your student loans with $11 an hour while also studying full-time, you’re lazy.
If you can’t raise a kid on $11 an hour, you’re lazy.
Like I said,
“No one wants to work anymore” is the new “All my exes are crazy”.