Wages and Loyalty

In the wake of labor actions against Walmart on Black Friday come two interesting links on wages. The first link is a Harvard Business School case study on why good jobs are good for retailers. The study's author looks at several successful discount retailers like Costco and finds that paying your workers more leads to better and more productive workers. Who woulda figured that? /sarcasm/

The second link is via Paul Krugman, who points out that the "skilled labor shortage" we have is really a wage problem. Basically, a lot of employers want skilled workers at fast-food manager wages. Skilled workers who spent their own money getting trained.

I really don't think this low-wage trend can continue. Fortunately, things that can't continue don't. I'd also like to point out that employers say they are looking for loyal employees. Loyalty is a two-way street - the employer needs to be loyal to the employee. That includes paying them what they are worth.