(04-28-2021, 08:05 AM)NewJagsCity Wrote: Went to a local Chili's the other Wednesday night with the family around 6. Got to the door and was told that the wait was 35 to 40 minutes. Looked around the restaurant and it was empty except for the bar area. I presumed that it was being cleaned and sanitized due to covid.  It turned out that the wait was the result of them having no serving staff other than the two people tending bar.  After asking a couple of questions, it turns out that they don't have any serving staff because they can't find anyone that wants to work there. Some of the serving staff was doing cross training in the kitchen cooking the food. The manager's opinion was that people are staying home and making almost as much just collecting government money, then signing up to possibly make a little bit more with wages and tips as a server. I've had the same conversations was quite a few construction contractors recently as well, and they say the same thing. It's getting increasingly harder for them to hire subcontract labor as a result. Welcome to socialism. 3 more years like this, and we will be Venezuela.

They think they can hide their tip income as a server while still collecting their government cheese, and they are probably right. Biden's new plan includes 80B to ramp up IRS audits of high earners and corporations, so I am sure the servers cheating the system here will get snagged up in that audit, lol.

If and when eviction moratoriums are lifted and deadbeats can no longer stiff their landlord, a lot of these jobs will naturally be filled.

---