They have been gumming up a storm on bubblevision about worker shortages as the Virus Patrol finally stands aside and permits commerce to happen among consenting adults. But, really, after $6 trillion of stimmies, UI toppers, rent and mortgage payment moratoriums and manifold other dispensations of free stuff exactly what would they expect?
The cavalcade of shortage howlers has especially included a lot of hospitality industry executives and restaurant sector equity analysts, and for good reason. Here is a pertinent chart from a peer-reviewed study by three University of Chicago economists of wage replacement rates by industry, profession and income level, and it fairly screams out moral hazard good and loud.
The bars measure the UI (unemployment insurance) wage replacement rate by combining regular state benefits, which tend to be about 50% (blue area) of prior wages, with the Federal topper (green area), which was $600 per week at the time of the study and remains $300 per week under Sleepy Joe’s $1.9 trillion boondoggle enacted last winter.
When you look at the first bar on the left, which shows a wage replacement rate of about 170% for workers in the Leisure and Hospitality (L&H) sector, it is surprising that anyone at all has gone back to work!