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A quarter-century ago, there were 56 teenagers in the labor force for every "limited service" restaurant — that is, the kind where you order at the counter.
Today, there are fewer than half as many, which is a reflection both of teenagers' decreasing work force participation and of the explosive growth in restaurants.
But in an industry where cheap labor is an essential component in providing inexpensive food, a shortage of workers is changing the equation upon which fast-food places have long relied. This can be seen in rising wages, in a growth of incentives, and in the sometimes odd situations that business owners find themselves in.
Too many restaurants, not enough teens to work in them.
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A Fast-Food Problem: Where Have All the Teenagers Gone?
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Could I have a drug overdose?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Thursday July 19 2018, @03:46PM (12 children)
We need people to work there.
We can't find people to work there.
But those people are looking for work.
It's almost like there's something missing there... like the job is shit, or the pay isn't worth it? How you could improve either/both of those? Maybe pay them a bit more? Or make the job more appealing? Or provide some benefits they don't have?
The expectation that "we have a minimum wage job so people should be flocking to it, even in the middle of nowhere, for rubbish hours, horrible work, etc." is so wrong.
If you need staff, raise your offered wage. You'll find someone willing to do the job before it gets silly, and they'll be KEEN to do it, and you'll retain them better, and they will crow about how good working there is, and they'll do a better job.
But if you only offer the same as the place down the road, what makes you think someone will choose you just because it's a job?
A vast number of jobs that exist are even worse when you take into account how many people live in the area, how long it takes to get to them, whether you can park, what big towns are nearby etc. etc. etc. - to the point that I've known people in jobs where ultimately they're earning an extreme pittance once their own expenses, time, etc. are taken into account.
If it takes an hour for your employee to get to you from home, their "value for money" just got spread over 40+ hours more than if they were next-door, whatever you're paying (2 hour commute, 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month). If you want to find an employee to take that on, you would need to pay them enough to counter those 40+ hours, while also capturing job applications from a wide enough radius to increase your chances.
Simply put: No-one wants that job? Pay more. See what happens.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @03:57PM (6 children)
Two words nobody else mentioned: "Property Prices".
Just 20 years ago, you could (just about) work shifts at a fast food place and pay your rent. That equation no longer works and the proposed alternatives are minimum wage or immigration - both of which exasperate the underlying problem.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday July 19 2018, @05:04PM (5 children)
I remember reading stories as a kid about old sailors who carried their hammocks with them and slept wherever they could anchor it, because it was a custom they had acquired aboard ship. I wonder why more people don't do that now, if housing is an issue for them. There are even such things as hammock tents that completely enclose you, in case the weather is inclement. When you're done, roll 'em up and stuff 'em into your backpack.
I know if I was a young guy getting out of college with crushing student debt and no way to afford a regular apartment, it's what I would do. A hammock tent, an e-bike, and a gym membership for the shower, and I'd be set.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Informative) by sjames on Thursday July 19 2018, @05:36PM
You would soon discover a new tradition called the police show up in the middle of the night, destroy your stuff and order you to leave or get arrested.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Thursday July 19 2018, @06:29PM
No permanent address?
In my country, that means no bank account, no credit card, no car insurance, no required tax forms, probably no ID (or ID on an address that you can't say you live at, which is an offence for some ID - e.g. driving licence, etc.), etc. etc. etc. Hell, getting paid in cash is rarer and rarer unless you work in a direct-service-industry (e.g. taxicabs, etc.).
It's actually harder to get a job and keep a job without a permanent address - employers don't want you up-and-leaving without a trace.
Sure, you could use a friend's address, until they realise your credit history affects them, or you have 10 people all living at that address that aren't really there. It only needs a couple of letters returned "undelivered / not at this address" and your accounts can be closed until you go to the bank and prove you have a permanent address again.
It's just not that easy in a modern world. That's why.
Sure, if you want to work in places that pay cash-in-hand, no tax, don't care about where you live, where you are going to carry all that cash around with you, where you have nowhere to secure to belongings, in a workplace that'll let you bring or leave your live-in crap in a secure place, where you have no need for a phone, a computer, the ability to buy things online, never pay any bills, get questions about what tax you were paying in that interval, etc. etc. etc. then feel free. That's a class of people who already exist, and have more than enough problems getting back into regular work and even renting accommodation, let alone explaining gaps in employment history etc. to future employers.
Cool for trekking through Asia, living off sketching people. Not so cool for any kind of regular or secure life. Certainly not compatible with things like electric-bikes... I'd give it a week before it was nicked and where do you leave it when you're at work?
Of course it can be done. It's called being homeless.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 19 2018, @08:00PM (2 children)
How long do you think you would own that e-bike in your homeless state? Careful where you try to charge it, anybody who didn't like the look (or smell) of you at first sight would use "electricity theft" as a pretense to hassle you, and if the cops are on their side, you're toast.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 20 2018, @01:17AM (1 child)
Lock? German shepherd?
Public charging station? Work?
See, i'm not talking about somebody who's indigent, just nomadic. TFA was talking about fast food restaurants who can't find workers, because the workers can't afford homes in commuting distance. I'm saying that if you eschew rent, you can make your dollar go further.
No mailing address? P.O. box. Can't register to vote with a PO box? Well, what are you really missing anyway? No driver's license? E-bike.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 20 2018, @02:13AM
When I was in college a bike with a Kryptonite lock would last an average of 1.5 nights outside before it vanished - and that was for crappy old pedal bikes. I imagine that e-bikes make even more tempting targets.
If you take a German shepherd with you on your nomadic lifestyle in urban areas, I'd call that borderline cruelty. Cities aren't going to let you let your dog off-leash, especially while you sleep - where, exactly? Our nephew back-packed across the US and managed to find private property owners here and there who would let him pitch tent for a night or two, but it was hit and miss and on the miss nights he was hassled more often than not. One thing he didn't find were many people who would even entertain the idea of letting him stay long term.
Then, you've got the issue of public toileting - places with facilities generally won't have places you can sleep for free within miles.
There's a pretty big "roughing it" community that moves up and down the I-75 corridor, sleeping in places with names like "itchy bottom swamp." Getting enough work to be able to afford food is a challenge, probably made easier with cellphones.
The sad fact of life in our society is that if you choose to be nomadic, it is far easier to make your living as a combo pan-handler / small time thief than it is to get gainful employment.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @04:07PM
Maybe it is a sign that too many fast food places and other restaurants are open.
If you have walked into a restaurant at noon and see a bunch of empty tables, maybe that place shouldn't exist. Or maybe it exists only for money laundering purposes, in which case, I salute them.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday July 19 2018, @05:27PM (3 children)
Employers are willing to do anything to lure people into jobs -- except pay them decently.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday July 20 2018, @01:50PM (2 children)
Meanwhile, people bitch that the price of a fast-food meal is now an hour's wages.
See, raising business expenses has consequences on the other end, too.
Also, in states with high mandatory costs (payroll taxes, workmans comp, etc.), wages are only a fraction of the per employee cost. In California, wages are only about 30% of the cost of a legal employee; the other 70%, you pay to the state. (Real numbers. Costco did the math last time CA decided to raise costs to employees, and found they'd be better off to leave CA entirely. I also did the math when I was looking to hire a part-timer, and found my $7000/yr part-time employee, if fully legal, would cost me over $20,000/year. Never mind!)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Friday July 20 2018, @02:30PM
To be honest, the situation may be different in other countries, but fast food in my country is ludicrously cheap.
I know a couple who are young and potless, and they frequent McDonald's and I could never fathom why until I went along with them.
If you buy this burger, in this deal, with this happy meal, and this drink, and then pick up some of these, and swap these bits between the two of them... two fully-grown adults were able to get a meal in about 2 minutes that cost them an absolute pittance. If I remember rightly, they even got a free soft toy most of the time, and they knew the menu and the tricks to make off by heart (e.g. no ice in the drink, two small drinks with two small meals worked out cheaper than a large drink, etc.). They use vouchers and coupons, student discounts, etc. and they have it down-pat because it's one of the cheapest ways for them to eat, and be in the warm in the winter, and meet with friends who all do the same, and they get free wifi, and charge their phone while they're there. And, quite often, whatever was left was taken home as a snack for later.
And you have a mix of salads, and vegs, and high-calorie, high-sugar foods, and it worked out really well. Hell, McDonald's has changed radically since I was a kid, some of them are almost proper restaurants with table service now.
I was surprised, most especially at the ingenuity of how they played the menus to get kids and adults meals to work out to feed them both fully with a pretty balanced meal each, but also just the sheer amount of effort they put into saving even 10p on such a meal. Literally, my "usual" order came to more than they paid for both theirs, and they gave me the stuffed toy for my kid as they "already had them all" just as a side-effect of eating like that. And I'm sure they'd rather have had another 10p off and no toy.
I'd also like to point out - in the UK, eating out is incredibly expensive. The US is vastly cheaper for that, every time I've been. Personally, I can't even remember ever comparing the prices of restaurants for eating out, even when I was literally penniless, because it was also far too expensive. But now... I think I'd have to seriously consider doing what my friends were doing. They're not alone, either. I know people all over the UK who do the same, whether in big-name fast-food restaurants, or just knowing what the local chippy does that's the best value (NEVER order large chips in a UK fish & chip shop... you'll never get through them... if you order it, split it between 2, 3, 4 people).
So I have a really hard time believing that such a place would rather not have enough servers to cater for clients than put 5p / 5c on a price of a popular product and employ someone to fill that gap.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 20 2018, @02:32PM
I suppose people should starve because they cannot earn a living wage.
No wonder we have a generation of people who still live at home with their parents.
People disillusioned that there is no opportunity.
The high cost of low prices.
By not paying more for a Big Mac we are creating massive societal problems that will ultimately cost us far more. Penny wise, pound foolish. But that's corporate thinking to the max. Destroy everything if it means improving this quarter's results.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.