Restaurants, stores raise salaries to get people back to work

Many companies are now offering better pay and paid leave in the hope of recruiting employees to open their doors for business again. The past few months have seen many businesses post openings for positions but many complained that unemployment benefits made it easier for employees to not work. The pandemic caused many businesses to temporarily shut but they were having a hard time employing people after reopening their doors for business. It appears workers weighed in the option of being underpaid and risking catching the virus against sitting in the safety of their home and receiving benefit expansions. Some, who are parents, didn't have anywhere to drop off their children with schools closed have decided against it.

While many labeled workers 'lazy' for sitting at home and receiving benefits, some argued that workers had every right to decide against going back into a menial, dead-end job at the risk of catching the coronavirus while being underpaid. To entice people back to work, businesses are now offering better pay and benefits. The wages offers have been hiked as restrictions ease across the United States and more customers feel encouraged to step out of their homes. The labor shortage combined with a sharp rise in customers has put businesses in a fix, leaving many with no option other than increase their wages to meet the customer demand.

McDonald’s, Sheetz, and Chipotle have followed in the footsteps of Amazon, Walmart, and Costco in raising their wages to $15 an hour or even higher. This has sparked a debate online with many stating that it highlighted that businesses could always afford to raise the wages and offer benefits to workers, but chose not to. Some argued that only big businesses like Amazon and McDonald's could afford to increase wages, adding that it would kill small businesses.

Last week, McDonald's announced that it would increase hourly wages “by an average of 10%” for more than 36,500 employees at its 660 company-operated restaurants in America. People working at entry-level jobs will earn in the range of $11-$17 an hour, while shift managers will see their wages increase to $15 to $20. "Our first value is taking care of our people, and today we are rewarding our hardworking employees in McDonald-owned restaurants for serving our communities," said Joe Erlinger, President McDonald’s USA, in a statement.

Similarly, Amazon is offering an average starting pay of $17 per hour while Chipotle announced it was increasing its average hourly rate to $15. Amazon is offering vaccinated warehouse and delivery workers a $100 bonus on producing the coronavirus vaccination card. To overcome the labor shortage, Chipotle announced a referral bonus of $200 for restaurant workers and $750 for general managers, according to Bored Panda. Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor increased employees' wages to $15 per hour and has seen their job applications shoot up. Jacob Hanchar, the co-owner of Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor in Pittsburgh, said increasing the minimum wage has helped his business, reported MSNBC.