Worth Reading – When You’re Stuck on “Help Wanted”

You would think this would be obvious, especially to businesses constantly lobbying for less regulation in the free market:

Economic theory—and common sense—suggests an easy solution for these employers: offer higher wages. But in many cases, companies aren’t biting. “There are people looking for work,” says Benjamin Friedrich, an associate professor of strategy at Kellogg. “If firms say they can’t find workers, there’s a price that should be able to clear this market.”

https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/when-youre-stuck-on-help-wanted

I feel like we learned this in Econ 101, right? It’s a simple supply-and-demand curve. If you can’t buy the supply at the price you are offering, you need to raise it. Yet, the article goes on to talk about all the reasons why this isn’t happening, and they aren’t what you’d expect. It’s not just small shops that lack the resources to conduct salary research; it’s also very large, growing companies that don’t want to adjust the salaries of currently underpaid employees or are hesitant to commit to higher salaries long-term, etc.

In the end, though, those concerns are your problem, not the candidates.

And, may I add, that if your concern about the offered salary is that it’s too high compared to your current employees, guess what kind of risk that opens up for you in terms of losing them?

It’s all about the money; that’s what the current business climate has taught all of us.

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