Wages Starting To Creep Up, But Is It Enough?

NPR reported today that Starbucks and Costco are both raising their starting wages to $15 and $17 respectively. They join several other major companies who have announced increases to their wages.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1049980529/starbucks-and-costco-raising-wages-in-the-nationwide-competition-for-workers

However, this is still significantly short of what is needed by workers to afford housing.

"Full Time Minimum Wage Workers Can't Afford Rent Anywhere In The US" - CNBC

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/full-time-minimum-wage-workers-cant-afford-rent-anywhere-in-the-us.html

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's 2021 Report "Out Of Reach": "The 2021 National Housing Wage is $24.90 per hour for a modest two bedroom rental home and $20.40 per hour for a modest one-bedroom rental home."

Looking at the jobs listed is especially interesting, as they all fall into the industries that are the loudest proponents of the "labor shortage". In particular, the bottom several are known to be especially difficult, from a combination of significant physical requirements, dealing with troublesome customers (even before a pandemic), long hours, and irregular scheduling.

Workers, I believe, have simply decided that they have had enough.

Link to the full report:

https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2021/Out-of-Reach_2021.pdf