# Lack of low-wage workers... where have they gone? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752 "2021-11-03T20:59:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/242 "2021-11-28T18:16:23Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I just heard on Planet Money that only 6.6% of truck drivers are women. Excluding half the population (for reasons I’ll let others speculate about) from joining your workforce is really going to hurt an industry in tight labor markets. I think most of the workers who maintain our infrastructure are men. How many women work on maintaining the power grid? How many women are part of the construction crew building or repairing houses, bridges, or commercial buildings? How many women are lumber jacking in the lower 48? How many women are farming? ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/243 "2021-11-28T19:06:28Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I think most of the workers who maintain our infrastructure are men Yes, this is a big problem in many different areas. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/244 "2021-11-28T19:17:55Z")
I actually have a cat groomer and she is phenomenal. Keeps my huge grubby non-grooming tomcat clean and pretty and gives him lion cuts in summer. Pretty reasonable prices, too. So if you’re anywhere near Portland OR have I got a connect for YOU! ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/245 "2021-11-28T19:22:33Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > FWIW, a good friend of mine is a woman, and a trucker, though she works at an intermodal yard, rather than over-the-road. I re-connected with a former girlfriend from many years ago. Trish was once a model (really), now a long-haul trucker on a big rig. She’s quite feminine, but strong and assertive (she put me in my place many times). She now travels with her boyfriend, but he was born without fingers, so can’t help much with the physical requirements of trucking. She loves her job, however. _“I never wanted to be tied down to one place, or person”_, she related. We ended our relationship on good terms. In fact, I introduced her to her husband, with whom she had three kids, then divorced. She let him have primary custody of the kids, but she visits them whenever she’s in town. She has an identical twin. They look identical but have completely different personalities. They’ve always hated each other. Trish is certainly one of the most unique people I’ve ever known. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/246 "2021-11-28T19:56:04Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > How many women are farming? Quite a lot. If they’ve got husbands, however, often it’s only the man who’s identified as a farmer, even when the wife is doing quite a bit of the work. > [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > I have the (potentially unpopular) opinion that even with perfect availability of jobs to both sexes, there will still be jobs that attract one sex over the other. I look forward to seeing if that’s the case. I look forward to there actually being perfect availability of jobs to all genders; not only in theory, but in actual practice, including full acceptance by society and in the actual workplaces. The situation’s improved quite a bit during my lifetime, but we’re not there yet. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/247 "2021-11-28T20:55:39Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > How many women are farming? Roughly half of all farmers. Farming has been an equal-opportunity destroyer of the bodies of both men and women since time immemorial. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/248 "2021-11-28T22:17:45Z")
> [@Bootb](#): > > Roughly half of all farmers. According to the Department of Agriculture it’s about 36% which is higher than I thought it would be. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/249 "2021-11-28T22:50:17Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > According to the Department of Agriculture it’s about 36% which is higher than I thought it would be. And again, they’re almost certainly not including a number of women who are thought of as “farmers’ wives” but not counted as farmers, even when they’re doing a chunk of the farm work. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/250 "2021-11-28T23:53:43Z")
ITA, and I don’t think a lot of it is sexism; it’s biology. We’re never going to have a lot of female city firefighters because most women just plain old do not have the upper body strength to meet the fitness standards. This isn’t as needed for things like forest firefighting, and that’s why there are so many women who instead do that. Volunteer squads may not have those standards either; as an example, a 20-year-old female volunteer FF in a nearby town recently died suddenly, and I assumed it was probably an accident, until they revealed that she had cystic fibrosis! She never weighed more than about 75 pounds, but they said she did everything that men 3 times her weight did, until her health failed. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/251 "2022-05-20T03:25:58Z")
Bumping an old thread: I just saw on Facebook that a very popular, long-running cafe had 5 interviews scheduled, and all of them were no call no shows. Folks, if you have an interview and can’t make it or have decided you don’t want to work there, just call them and cancel! ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/252 "2022-05-20T08:12:48Z")
Employers “no show” and “no call” on employees and potential employees all the time. I used to have the same exact opinion you do, but then I started to realize some things about life (probably starting 20-25 years ago). 1. The people I knew who rarely extended much courtesy to shit jobs and employers and treated them in similar fashion seemed to do better in life, and employees who showed the respect and courtesy rarely reciprocated by their employers often found themselves in dire situations with crippling social and financial disadvantages among other things. 2. With the way the labor market is now and the flexibility of things like gigs and many ways to make money and all kinds of low-end jobs offering incentives and appealing to workers with high time-preference, a prospective employee is probably going to apply for many low-wage jobs at a time and take the one that responds fastest and/or try out a few different ones and take advantage of various incentives. There’s no real downside to “ghosting” employers. It’s a dating-app type world. Cast your net wide for potential suitors. Don’t get “oneitis” for any specific low-wage employer. Makes about as much sense as proposing to every Tinder match. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/253 "2022-05-20T14:26:05Z")
Beyond that, it’s not like if you stand up McDonald’s, that somehow Wendy’s is going to get wind of that and refuse to interview you. Or any other low wage job either. Or even at the same location a year later- somehow I doubt the recordkeeping is so great that they’ll be like “Hmmm… this cat stood us up a year ago for an interview to cook fries at $7.40/hr.”, or that anyone at that location will still even be there. So there’s literally no downside to not being overly concerned about those low wage employers. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/254 "2022-05-20T19:12:26Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > Employers “no show” and “no call” on employees and potential employees all the time. I never have. > [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > The people I knew who rarely extended much courtesy to shit jobs and employers and treated them in similar fashion seemed to do better in life, and employees who showed the respect and courtesy rarely reciprocated by their employers often found themselves in dire situations with crippling social and financial disadvantages among other things. I see what you are saying, and I’m starting to realize that employers who treat their employees with respect tend to find themselves in dire situations, while those who do not extend them much courtesy tend to do better. > [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > a prospective employee is probably going to apply for many low-wage jobs at a time and take the one that responds fastest and/or try out a few different ones and take advantage of various incentives. Makes sense, it is best for both employer and emplyee to find the best fit. > [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > There’s no real downside to “ghosting” employers. Well, unless you _have_ landed a job, and you are understaffed because no one follows through on either showing up for an interview they asked for, or spending the 15 seconds it would take to send an email or text. > [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > Makes about as much sense as proposing to every Tinder match. Well, it’s more like setting up a date with every Tinder match, and then standing them all up. > [@bump](#): > > So there’s literally no downside to not being overly concerned about those low wage employers. Seems that that is the case for employers paying $20 an hour as well. One of these days, all the employers who actually try to do right by their employers are all going to be gone, whether through going out of business, or as @actualliberalnotoneofthose indicates, realizing that they are better off not doing so, so not only will there be fewer jobs available for them to pick from, those jobs will come with lower pay and worse conditions. And it seems as though those days are rapidly approaching as small businesses across the nation are folding due to not only lack of workers, but wasted time and opportunities in setting up interviews for people who never show up, and also to wasted resources on hiring and training those who will quit as soon as they make enough to get through the next month or so. When the dust settles, all that will be left are the large corporations who can weather these times, and the small businesses who treat their employees with cynicism and mistrust. Any employer who dared to show loyalty to their employees will be driven into the ground. When people finally start needing to get a real job to pay their bills, they won’t like what they are stuck with. I get that it’s just the way things are, and it’s not actually anyone’s fault or within their capability of changing, I just don’t understand why anyone is so giddy about it. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/255 "2022-05-21T05:08:03Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I never have. I am retired. I have worked many jobs during my lifetime. I have only once had an employer NOT ghost me if I didn’t pass their interview. ONE. You are very rare. Back when I entered the workforce, I was a team player. I would give my all, give up breaks to finish an “important” job, stay late for the promise (usually forgotten by boss the next day) that I could come in late or leave early on a different day and live my life according to their whims. I got nowhere. I started looking out for myself and now am retired and debt free. Perhaps you should start looking out for yourself. You are the only one who really cares about you and your financial future. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/256 "2022-05-21T12:39:24Z")
> [@JaneDoe42](#): > > I am retired. I have worked many jobs during my lifetime. I have only once had an employer NOT ghost me if I didn’t pass their interview. ONE. You are very rare. It was 2010 when I was first ghosted by an employer, before that, I was either hired, or told that they were currently fully staffed and that they would call if they needed me. Now, sure, that last is probably a polite way of dismissing me, but it’s not the same as ghosting. I was surprised when I went to a few interviews, didn’t hear back, called and didn’t have messages returned, and finally showed up in person to ask, and was then told that I was not needed. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > Back when I entered the workforce, I was a team player. I would give my all, give up breaks to finish an “important” job, stay late for the promise (usually forgotten by boss the next day) that I could come in late or leave early on a different day and live my life according to their whims. See, that’s not being a team player, that’s allowing the employer to violate labor laws. I always stood up for myself, demanding a fair workplace. Sometimes I got it, sometimes I didn’t. I’ve had employers blatantly break every employment law they could get their hands on, and I’ve had some that went out of their way to make sure that their employees were treated legally, ethically, and fairly. But what I didn’t do was to punish the employers who gave me a fair workplace for the actions of those who didn’t. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > Perhaps you should start looking out for yourself. You are the only one who really cares about you and your financial future. As an employer, that means treating my employees as fungible disposable objects that are there to be exploited to the maximum extent I can get away with. My goal in starting a business was to create a workplace in which _I_ would want to work, and I was more or less successful in that endeavour until the recent employment difficulties. Cooperation is a positive sum game, where everyone can walk away with more than they put in. Competition is a negative sum game, where you can only gain by _taking_ from others. I think a large reason for the decline of our country is _too much_ looking out for oneself. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752/257 "2022-05-21T18:17:44Z")
Good luck to you and your business. I hope your future is bright, you are able to pay off all of your debt (cars and mortgage included) next year and that your retirement will be all you want it to be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lack-of-low-wage-workers-where-have-they-gone/953752.md?page=12)