Looking at this article, Kevin Drum notes:
How about that? If you pay more, you attract workers with the right skills. If you pay more, training programs start to fill up. If you pay more, you can steal folks away from your competitors.
Pay is the great equalizer. There are always going to be shortages of specific skills in specific times and places. But a long-term nationwide shortage? That just means employers aren’t willing to pay market wages. They should read their Milton Friedman. If you pay them, they will come.
This is what I’m always thinking when there are articles about employers having trouble finding workers–they’re having trouble finding workers at the salary they want to pay. Employers don’t like the Free Market (!) when it favors the workers.
You can see an extreme example here (the fact that this is the states complaining makes it even worse):
With numerous states pushing for a delay, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that it would put off enforcement of its plan to extend minimum-wage and overtime protections to the nation’s nearly two million home-care workers.
…
Home-care industry officials warned that the increased costs caused by the new rule might make many families unable to afford home care and might push more Americans who are disabled or older than 65 into nursing homes, increasing costs for the government. Moreover, some states warned of increased Medicaid costs.
Hey, if we stopped paying them altogether we could really reduce costs.
Petunias 