This has been a running joke with me for decades: “There are a lot of good jobs in [your town here]. I know people who have two or three.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic winds down and the Delta variant winds up, Americans are still re-evaluating their life choices, and not only what kind of working lives they want but are willing to tolerate. Especially younger Americans.
One trending narrative is that employment is rebounding, pay rates are up, and workers are in the driver’s seat. But not for long, Politico reports:
The country’s rapid reopening has created a unique economic environment where the demand for workers is rising faster than the supply, giving greater clout to lower-wage employees whose help is needed as Americans flock back to restaurants and retail stores.
But without significant structural changes — including legislation aimed at increasing workers’ bargaining power — the labor market will return to normal in a matter of months, handing the balance of power back to employers where it has been trending for decades, economists and worker advocates say. The flurry of bonuses is likely to be short-lived, and wage hikes might not have lasting benefits for the next round of hires.
“I think the gains of workers will be evanescent,” said Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), a former labor organizer and a strong voice in Congress for workers. “They will not last.”
A personal version of this economy’s underbelly comes from an anonymous, semi-pro, college essay writer. The recent English graduate with $70k in student debt was out of bartending work when the pandemic shut down everything. When a friend recommended writing essays for a black-market essay mill, well, Anonymous needed the cash. Economics trumped ethics.
But customers’ situations did not meet expectations that all would be elite, rich kids too lazy to write their own papers (there were some). Hundreds, maybe most, were simply desperate:
They were not rich. Students would try to negotiate prices or work out payment plans. They said things like “I’ll be back to accept your offer on Friday when my check clears.” An assistant manager at Taco Bell, a drive-through operator at Wendy’s, a cashier at Whole Foods— you name it. My clients had a variety of low-income jobs and attended classes simultaneously. I’d ask them a question about their project, and they wouldn’t get back for a day or two. When I’d finally hear back, they’d say, “Sorry, I was working a double.”
And more often than not, it wasn’t students—or parents—at elite colleges purchasing papers. It was students at community colleges working for minimum wage who didn’t have time to write them.
It was single parents who had to balance work, child care, and college. They often had kids and multiple jobs, and they were just trying to advance their careers with a degree.
It was international college students. A few clients from China told me they could crush any American in calculus, but when it came to writing an English essay for their American lit class, they were at a major disadvantage, especially when COVID began and they went back to China.
Even fellow essay-writers from academia participated in the black market to make ends meet.
Everyone was cheating because it was the only way to stay afloat or to get anywhere in this economy. Bootstraps these days are mighty short and break easily. Anonymous eventually quit when Covid began to lift and bartending and other literary-related work again became options.
As much as we hear people emerging from their Covid cocoons are reevaluating their work lives, one wonders how little will change when we have fully recovered. This economy should be serving people, not the other way around. But there is little sign of that changing in my lifetime. The Market demands tribute. So long as those who benefit most set the rules (or ignore them), the tribute it demands are workers’ lives and souls.
I’ll likely be using “I know people who have two or three” when I’m 90.