Money & The Economy

Fast-Food Wages Surged 10%, Quickest In Years As Companies Struggle To Hire Workers

Fast-food workers’ wages increased more during the second quarter of 2021 than they did in any quarterly period in years amid the ongoing labor shortage, according to an industry report.

Wages for hourly workers at fast-food restaurants surged 10% between April and June of 2021 compared to the same period last year, according to a recent report by Black Box Intelligence and Snagajob. By contrast, fast-food employees’ wages increased just 4.1% between January and March of 2021 relative to the same period in 2020.

“For the first time in decades, the American hourly worker has the upper hand in compensation conversations,” the report said. “In response, restaurants are offering higher wages and unique incentives to attract employees.”

In addition, full-service restaurants have about 6 fewer kitchen employees and 3 fewer “front of the house” employees than they reported in 2019, the report found.

“I’d like to share my experience with the critical labor shortage issue,” said Mark Glenn, a small business owner in Texas and a member of the International Franchise Association, during a Capitol Hill hearing last month. “It is both real and crippling.”

“Not only have we posted job openings on traditional online job platforms and on social media, but we are offering the existing staff referral incentives for quality candidates that are payable if the candidate is hired,” Glenn continued.

The labor shortage has hit multiple record highs over the last several months, according to the Department of Labor, the latest reports reflecting more than 10 million job openings in June even after 6.7 million reported hires that month.

There are approximately 6 million fewer employed Americans than there were in February 2020 prior to the outbreak of coronavirus, Labor Department data shows. The labor force participation rate, the percentage of Americans either working or looking for work, measured just 61.7% in July compared to the pre-pandemic level of 63.4%.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org

Thomas Catenacci

Share
Published by
Thomas Catenacci

Recent Posts

Embracing The Past

Democrats are reviving the authoritarian ideologies of history’s most oppressive regimes, once thought to be…

2 hours ago

What The Left’s Colorado Climate Lawsuit Is Really All About

Across the country, left-wing activists are attempting to convert America’s state courts into left-wing policy…

4 hours ago

The Case For A Smaller, Humbler Federal Reserve

For two decades, the Federal Reserve has behaved less like a central bank and more…

4 hours ago

White House Budget Office Launches Funding Probe Into 49 Activist NGOs

The Trump administration is investigating how organizations like “The TransLatin@ Coalition” use taxpayer dollars, according to…

4 hours ago

Ilhan Omar-Backed New Jersey Democrat Congressional Candidate Reportedly Volunteered For Al-Qaida Affiliate

New Jersey Democratic House candidate Adam Hamawy worked for an Al-Qaida-linked nonprofit in the 1990s…

4 hours ago

Life’s About To Get More Complicated For Gun Owners In Blue State

Colorado gun owners will face a convoluted licensing scheme beginning in August to purchase some…

4 hours ago