Restaurants And Stores In The US Are Finally Starting To Raise Salaries And People Share Their Thoughts On It

In the current post-pandemic times, more and more businesses are reopening their doors, and job openings are accelerating faster than people can send in their job applications.

Many reasons can be blamed for staff shortages, from parents not having anywhere to leave their homeschooled children, to others who are worried about catching the virus, while the rest are satisfied with benefit expansions.

So to attract more applicants to keep up with a new wave of customers as the restrictions ease, restaurants and stores in the US are now hiking wages. McDonald’s, Sheetz, and Chipotle are just some of the latest companies to follow Amazon, Walmart, and Costco in boosting wages to $15 an hour or even higher. It sparked a discussion on Twitter with people posting job ads that show “they can afford to pay you.”

The race to find an employee, let alone a talented one, has become a real headache for many businesses, both retail and catering, as the job market is being torn by increased customer flow amid vaccinations and a labor shortage.

So companies like McDonalds and Amazon, which are not usually associated with good pay and working conditions, are now forced to step up a little and pay more per hour.

For example, on Thursday, McDonalds reported that it will raise hourly wages "by an average of 10%" for more than 36,500 employees at more than 660 company-operated US restaurants. This will make an entry-level job come in at $11-$17 an hour. Meanwhile, shift managers can expect their wage to increase to somewhere around $15 to $20 an hour to start.

On the same occasion, Amazon has announced it will be hiring 75,000 workers for its warehouse and delivery placements in the US and Canada. The company is now offering an average starting pay of $17 per hour, plus it will pay new warehouse and delivery workers a $100 bonus if they show a covid-19 vaccination card.

Chipotle has also said on Monday it will be raising its average hourly rage to $15. The package will include employee referral bonuses of $200 for restaurant workers and $750 for general managers.

Josh Bivens, a research director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told AP News that “Customers are coming back faster than restaurants can staff up. By raising pay, they are able to get more workers in the door.”