The capitalist ethos teaches us that the business owner gets to call all the shots, because they provided the capital and took the risks necessary to start the business. But this mindset ignores the concurrent reality that for all but the smallest business, the business owner could not continue as a business operator without employees. In the businesses that I have been in, those with specialized skills or education have, to a certain extent, been able to set the conditions of their employment, while those employees considered "unskilled" were viewed as expendable and easily replaceable. The reasons for this are related to the principle of supply and demand. A job seeker whose knowledge or ability is in short supply may find that the demand for her skill set exceeds the supply, so the salary is bid upwards and there is competition for her services. Owners and managers are forced to pay a decent wage and to allow flexibility and a sought-after work-life balance, as well as comfortable working conditions. In job classifications where the supply of job seekers exceeds the demand for them, the opposite takes place: the wage trends downward, working and conditions and work-life balance are as bad as management can legally get away with. There is no market-based incentive to do any better.
What we are seeing in many service sectors of the economy is that the low-wage workers have woken up to the reality well ahead of their managers and the owners of the businesses where they work. Suddenly, as the economy has opened up after the worst of the Covid pandemic, workers realize that they have choices, if they don't like it, they can "go find another job"...and they do it. Business owners are slower to make the connection. One thing that some businesses are figuring out is that in order to keep staffing levels up they need to increase wages to attract applicants. What they haven't figured out yet is that it's not just about the money. Employees don't want to live to work, they don't want to endure abuse from bosses or customers. They want to be able to stay home if they are sick or there is a family emergency. In short, they want to be treated with respect, not as a dispensable cog in the wheel.
Of course a business has to turn a profit in order to remain operational. There are many expenses involved in running a business. Unfortunately one of the first areas that gets cut when revenue goes down is payroll. In a retail store, labor cost budgets are usually tied to sales. If sales go down, then the money that can be spent on staffing goes down. What the corporate bean counters often fail to realize is that usually a certain minimum of work has to be done, no matter what the revenue looks like. So what happens is that hours get cut, positions get eliminated, and the remaining workers have to work harder to achieve the same tasks. Things don't get done, or don't get done right. Customers get angry, which causes resentment among the workers. Top management continues to cut labor while running sales and special events, which the reduced staff is ill-equipped to execute.
What used to happen was that employees would just complain, maybe fight back by stealing, or slowing down, or coming to work high, because they didn't want to risk having no job. Now, they know there are plenty of other jobs available, so they just quit.
At some point business owners will have to figure this out.
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