AOC: There isn’t a “labor shortage”. There’s a dignified job shortage.

 

“Imagine you go into a store, and you see a shirt you’d like to purchase. You ask the shopkeeper how much it is, and they say it’s $5. You say, I don’t have $5, I have $1. Can you sell it to me for $1?

Of course the shopkeeper says, no, I’m sorry but I can’t sell that shirt for less than $5. That $5 helps cover my basic essentials to continue running my business.

Do we say that there’s a t-shirt shortage? No. Then why do we treat wages like that? Why are we calling this a ‘labor shortage’? I think it is a dignified job shortage.”

That’s how Alexandria started her latest Instagram stories series to help break down some of the false “labor shortage” claims that corporate politicians are using to further whittle down the Build Back Better Act.

Then she hit us with some hard facts about the so-called “labor shortage”:

The sectors hardest hit by this “labor shortage” are those that have historically relied on women, people of color, and low-income workers. These include retail, food service, caregiving, teaching, and home health care aids.

We are in the midst of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 700,000 Americans and conservatives act like that has nothing to do with the shortage of people that are available to work. On top of that, w​omen, especially, have been pushed out of the workforce by the thousands.

This is what happens when we don’t have health care or childcare. And the irony is that a lot of the folks claiming a “labor shortage” are the same ones claiming that investing in universal pre-k, childcare, and paid leave is irresponsible for the economy.

What’s irresponsible is leaving our communities to pick up the pieces of our economy without the proper support, and then blaming them for not working low-wage jobs with bad benefits.

We need a real investment in our care economy and human infrastructure. And Alexandria is fighting right now to get these transformative programs and policies included and passed in the Build Back Better Act.

Right now is our biggest opportunity to make transformative investments in our human infrastructure. We can accomplish this and we must.

Thank you for your support today,

Team AOC