In Chicago, 70 bus drivers quit in protest of a mandatory vaccine policy. That’s about 10 percent of the drivers. In Massachusetts, the National Guard is subbing as bus drivers, as there aren’t enough to be found.
A nationwide survey from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, among others, found that 99 percent of school districts said bus driver shortages were a problem, with 65 percent saying it’s their top concern.
Unless all your employees’ children are enrolled in that 1 percent of school districts, this shortage will affect your business.
To keep reading, click here: The School Bus Driver Shortage Means Problems for Your Business
… you’re not just competing against people who make similar products or services; you’re competing against people who hire the same people you do.
Up to Labor Day you also had to compete against the unemployment agency, which was paying many people more to stay home than they previously earned.
Thankfully, that’s ended for now, and if it stays ended at least some wages will gradually return to normal. But we’ve now had a taste of what will become the permanent situation if advocates of a “universal basic income” get their way.
“paying many people more to stay home”
I was getting the max available in my state – $371/week (taxable)- and that covered the COBRA for my husband and me, which was $1,200/month.
Nobody is getting rich off unemployment. They are barely surviving. If you are paying less than unemployment, then your business model perhaps is unsustainable. Or it should be. I for one do not wish to buy from a business that exploits people to that level.
Yes, paying people to stay home in a pandemic is good for public health.
And after that, if you’re paying less than unemployment, what kind of terrible business are you running?
The only real point of this article is that companies need to offer fair wages per the current market value in the specific geographic area. The cost of living varies per location, so in the Metro NYS area, a wage merely pennies above the minimum wage of $15/hour in that location is going to have a low turnout of applicants, so companies need to offer higher starting wages and forget about that bottom line profit if they want to continue to stay in business. Of course for the higher wage, they should accept job efficiency standards to be upheld also as no one gets paid for merely showing up (which is also part of the problem in staffing these jobs, in these specific geographic areas). In these types of jobs ( school bus drivers for example) the person applying has to have a certain Class level of driver’s license, without a negative driver’s record–DUIs, etc., and have completed a driver’s safety course). You do not want unsafe drivers driving children. Because the school bus companies have to rely on getting contracts from the Board of Education, who is notorious for letting the bus companies know last minute of their needs, this shortage of bus drivers always seems to occur because of the communication gaps. So sometimes the hiring process is sped up without proper vetting but they can get better-qualified applicants if they start with higher wages, to begin with.
I can’t believe that everybody who lives in the NYS Metro area wants cushy dream jobs because of liberal thinking that anything that requires any physical effort is not worth working.
Of course, if schools were built in walkable communities and walking/biking to school was supported this would not be an issue. I know of schools that prohibit students below third grade from walking to school, even if accompanied by an older sibling.
Then, there are the schools that require a parent to be at the bus stop or driveway for them to release a child at the end of the day. No parent? Bus driver takes the kid back to school or even a police station where the parent has to retrieve their kid.
It’s so ironic that when more parents stayed at home (most of them mothers), kids had more freedom to walk to school and back. Yet as two working parents has become the norm, walking to and from school is now seen as the equivalent of sending your child into a warzone from which they might not return!