In the conversation over Minimum Wage, it comes down to the juxtaposition of paying employees a wage that enables them an acceptable standard of living and keeping one's doors open and profitable. Don't get me wrong: an arbitrary $15/hour isn't the answer, as every industry in every community is different. But, can we agree that squeezing work out of people for less than one can afford is morally and ethically wrong? Not to even consider the toll it takes on employee morale, dedication and customer satisfaction.
A DMO pro and I were shooting the shit earlier this week in preparation for our facilitation of their upcoming Strategic Planning Workshop. He shared with me that a local outlet of a national retailer Facebooked on Sunday that they were closing at 4pm because they only had one person show up for work.
It doesn't take an MBA to figure out this scenario. Pay more than $10/hour and people will be more likely to show up for work. The Manager replied that the hourly wage was set by Corporate...and there was nothing she could do.
So again, the onus falls back to Corporate. And again, it falls to me to break it down. If you need 3 people to staff the store and you were to pay, say, $20/hour, that would be $30/hour more than you're paying now. Staying open from 4 to 7 would mean $90 more in payroll (and a workforce that would be much more likely to show up and treat the customer like gold).
If you're a national retailer and you can't sell more than $90 of crap in three hours to cover that cost, you got bigger problems with your product and marketing than a workforce that has better things to do than work for $10/hour.
Corporate? I'm here all week, if you'd like to talk.
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