We don’t have a shortage of labor. We have a shortage of companies offering living wages, decent benefits, and affordable health care.
By: U.S. Representative Marie Newman
Ahead of last week’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, economists across the board predicted the United States would add about 1 million new jobs in April. Those forecasts never came to fruition. Instead, the nation clocked in only 266,000 new jobs, sparking a new vigorous debate among politicians, pundits and policy wonks about whether these disappointing job numbers are the result of a widespread labor shortage across the United States.
Spoiler alert: it is not.
While right-wing pundits will have you believe that American workers are staying home because they make more money on unemployment than at work, the actual job numbers will show you the opposite. In fact, unemployed Americans are more likely to find work in states with higher unemployment benefits than in states that provide lower benefits.
If anything, April’s job numbers demonstrate that the American labor market is demanding a real shift to a more equitable economy. To put it simply, American workers do not want to return to the same broken economic system that threw them out in the first place.
There is not a shortage of Americans looking for work, there is a shortage of Americans willing to work for starvation wages with no benefits, no health care, and no protections during a pandemic.
While the American Rescue Plan has certainly boosted consumer spending, reduced layoffs, and returned more employers to work as vaccine distribution expanded across the country, the sluggish job gains we saw in April can and will continue until we have an economy that works for our workers. That means living wages, access to paid family leave and childcare, and affordable health care.
Don’t take my word for it, just listen to America’s workers.
Earlier this year, a Pew Research Center survey found that 66% of unemployed workers had “seriously considered” changing their field or occupation, many of them leisure, hospitality, and food service workers in search for new industries and sectors that pay higher wages. The market has already taken notice. Since the new year, food service companies from Starbucks to Chipotle have announced wage increases, as have national retailers such as Costco and Wal-Mart. Meanwhile smaller companies are offering bonuses to attract back their workers.
While I wish all businesses would follow suit and pay their workers a living wage, I know that’s a fool’s errand. It’s on Congress to pass a $15 federal minimum wage increase because if we don’t, low-wage jobs will continue to go unfilled.
But here’s the good news: voters overwhelmingly support raising the minimum wage.
In fact, a Data for Progress poll found that 63 percent of voters support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, including nearly half of Republicans. Yes, you read that right. Republican voters support raising the minimum wage for workers while Republicans in Congress attempt to block it at every move.
But make no mistake, a lack of companies offering living wages is far from the only aspect holding Americans back from returning to their old employers or industries.
Over the past year, this once-in-a-lifetime health crisis has exacerbated the inequalities among paid leave and childcare in the United States as more women than ever before have been forced to make the impossible decision between caring for their families and earning a paycheck.
One year removed from the worst economic collapse for women in U.S. history, things have hardly improved. To date, more than 2 million women remain out of the workforce. In April’s job numbers alone, all job gains went to men while women’s labor-force participation fell.
Once again, there’s good news: voters overwhelmingly support expanding childcare availability and ensuring workers have access to paid family and medical leave. A recent poll by Data for Progress 61% of likely voters support President Biden’s American Families Plan, which would cut the cost of child care in half for American families and establish a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program.
And beyond better wages and benefits, American workers are demanding access to more affordable health care as this once-in-a-generation public health crisis has shown how broken our current is. As millions of Americans were kicked off their employer insurance after being let go or furloughed last year, a recent poll found that a majority of voters expressed support for a public health insurance option that would be available to everyone.
The market could not be more clear. From increased wages to expanded benefits to health care, American workers want bold, visionary changes to our economy.
We cannot rely on or wait for individual companies and businesses to make those changes alone. It is past time Congress acts and fulfills the will of the American voters who overwhelmingly support these bipartisan, popular ideas.
If we want to attract American workers back, we need to build an economy that works for them. A worker’s economy.
Congresswoman Marie Newman (@RepMarieNewman), a former small business owner, now represents Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, which covers the Southwest Side of Chicago as well as its surrounding suburbs. In Congress, she currently serves on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, House Committee on Small Business, Congressional Labor Caucus, and as the Vice Chair of Communications for the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC).