Unemployment Benefits Aren’t Creating a Labor Shortage, They’re Building Worker Power
A McDonald's restaurant on Penn Ave in Sinking Spring, PA. (Photo by Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
As businesses have begun opening back up, we have been subjected to increasing hand-wringing from business owners, particularly restaurants and similar service-based workplaces, who insist they are facing a labor shortage. The argument, according to some, is that unemployment benefits are too generous and are discouraging work, leaving employers unable to hire workers. Thankfully, these stories are being rebutted by workers, journalists, and analysts armed with a combination of personal experience and hard data. As expert after expert picks apart the flaws in employers’ arguments, though, it has become clear that what employers are worried about isn’t a labor shortage at all: It’s a power shift.