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What I’ve Been Reading This Week


A few days ago, I was talking with a regular reader of The Majority Opinion about the ongoing Great Resignation.  (For those unfamiliar with the term, this is in reference to the wave of employees leaving their current positions, due in part to the ongoing trudge of the coronavirus pandemic and the headaches that has added to the job.)  I came across an article from Forbes that I wanted to lead things of this week, as the article has a few ideas on what employers can do to navigate the Great Resignation and come through it all rather unscathed and with a full (or relatively full) workforce.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


Lessons Employers Can Learn From the Great Resignation

Tell me if you have heard this recently:  It is an employee friendly job market…a very, very employee friendly job market.  This article from Forbes takes note of the ongoing Great Resignation and what employers can do to ride out the storm.  For starters, there is no “fix” to the Great Resignation that applies to all employees and employers alike.  With that being said, this article suggests employers do several things, starting with listening and learning by taking stock of employee moral, looking at what can be done to make the job more efficient, and holding “stay” interviews (rather than exit interviews.)  Going one step further, the article suggests employers look for way to avoid employee burnout while remaining flexible.  Some workers might be struggling with going back to the office full time (or finding it difficult to manage multiple tasks if other employees are out sick, have quit, etc.)  Working with employees to see what they need to succeed, whether it is more flexibility, an extra hand on a task, an additional day off, etc., can all be used to mitigate employee burnout.


$15/Hour Wage Rates Coming to Sam’s Club By End of the Month

As announced earlier this week, Sam’s Club will raise its hourly pay rate from $11/hour to $15/hour by September 25th.  Notably, this hourly pay rate will be higher than what its parent company, WalMart currently pays ($12/hour.)  With the struggle to find workers an ongoing dilemma for many employers (including big box retailers) like Target, WalMart, etc., this announcement from Sam’s Club is likely to trigger other employers to follow suit with higher wage rates as well.

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What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa