What are entry level "unskilled" jobs paying where you live?

[maizefolk]

I live in a LCOL city and at the grocery store tonight the loudspeaker system was encouraging people to apply to work there, starting pay of $20/hour. Then they put a flier in the bag with my groceries, ALSO advertising jobs the the store with starting pay of $20/hour, no prior experience needed.

What are you all seeing as the going rate for jobs most any able bodied healthy person is qualified for without any special training/certification/experience?

[RunningintoFI]

Also live in a VLCOL city in the upper Midwest.  Jobs at the local fast-food joints are now about $18-$20/hr with impressive signing bonuses at some of them as well.  It's gotten to the point here where most chains can't find enough talent to keep all stores open in the city - they have to cycle employees to different locations on various days to keep the location viable.

I am well compensated at my employer but I've been tempted to take on a part time role at those price points and large signing bonuses.  Moreover, my employer is having to massively ramp up compensation as $22/hr starting wage with a college degree is now laughable - even with a great benefits package.     

[seattlecyclone]

The minimum wage in my city is $16.69 per hour. Tips, if any, are on top of this. A local hamburger chain with a location in my neighborhood is offering $18/hr to start, plus health insurance and several thousand dollars in annual education or child care benefits for those who work at least half time.

Do you know if the grocery store you shop at is unionized? Many of them are, and that does tend to lead to higher wages.

[Zamboni]

I'm glad these service-industry types of jobs are paying better . . . it will lead to happier employees and better service.

Edited to add that a lot of the service-industry jobs are actually pretty complicated and difficult to do well.

[HPstache]

Interesting subject.  I have been noticing some abnormally high entry level wages listed as well.  Our grocery store is also offering $20/hr and all other jobs I have seen so far are $18/hr.

[maizefolk]

seattlecyclone, I have a family member who works at the same chain in another city and their location is not unionized. I don't know if that means the local branch is also non-unionized or if that is a non-informative datapoint. Our state minimum wage is less than $10/hour, although it's been years since I've heard of people actually working for our minimum wage/seen jobs advertised at minimum wage. Pre coronavirus $10-12 seemed to be about as low as jobs went.

I'm glad these service-industry types of jobs are paying better . . . it will lead to happier employees and better service.

What type of pay are you seeing offered for these types of jobs in your part of the world?

[Zamboni]

$15-17 at Target (depends on the Target). They had a manned "recruiting booth" at the entrance the last time I went to Target. Never seen that before. Good looking kid manning it . . . almost made me want to work there, lol!

I'll pay better attention to the signs. I want to say there was also a McDonald's with a $15/hr sign at the drive through that also said $20/hr starting for managers. Pay advert signs in that range are common enough now that they just don't really get my attention anymore.

There is a small local burger place (independent, not a chain) that now pays $20 an hour to servers that they cover through a non-optional "service fee" they tack on the bill, European style. This being America, most people probably tip on top of that. I'd imagine those are some happy servers who want to keep their jobs.

My teenage son was just offered $15/hr to do catering set up for weekend parties. He's already figured out he can make as much as $30/hr doing other things if he hustles . . . and he's right. Campus work-study jobs are still offering $10-12/hr (which was considered pretty good two years ago) and he just laughed at that.

Minimum wage here is technically still $7.25/hr.

I think the pandemic really brought on how much we all depend on those essential service jobs, and the people working those jobs were forced to deal with even more BS than normal (mask policing, people acting crazy, having to wear a mask all day) and a lot of them said F-this. Wearing a mask all day for work sucks. Your face gets chapped, etc. So now they can't get enough people to do it for the low wages they've been getting away with for too long, and it's all turned into hiring wars.

[Michael in ABQ]

I've seen a few fast food restaurants in Albuquerque offering around $14-16/hour. Minimum wage just rose to $10.50/hour.

We just bought an ecommerce business and my kids are thrilled to get $5/hour. Granted, they're probably not accomplishing as much as an adult. Still, my idea of hiring someone for $12-13/hour to do pick, pack, and ship may not be that feasible.

[Paper Chaser]

I live in a LCOL in the Midwest. Two months ago there were signs outside of most retail, food service and warehousing/manufacturing sites begging for help. The food service and retail places were usually in the $15/hr ballpark with signing bonuses and/or perks like free food while on the clock. The warehouses and manufacturing facilities were in the $17-22/hr range. Then our state cancelled the extra federal unemployment benefits in June and maybe 30-50% of those signs went down. The state was forced to resume the extra unemployment benefits in mid July and so far the number of signs seeking help seems mostly the same as it has been for the last month, but it will be interesting to see if they start to pop back up over the next few weeks or not.

[uniwelder]

In my rural LCOL area, I’m seeing flyers from employment agencies posting $12-14/hr starting pay. I suppose this is a step up from $9-11.

edited to add---- looking around online, McDonald's is offering up to $12/hr and a little mom/pop convenience store just advertised $10.50/hr on the town's facebook page.

Edited again— I’m in rural Appalachian Virginia.

[stoaX]

In my suburb of Charlotte I see fast food places with signs offering $15 per hour starting pay.

[maizefolk]

I live in a LCOL in the Midwest. Two months ago there were signs outside of most retail, food service and warehousing/manufacturing sites begging for help. The food service and retail places were usually in the $15/hr ballpark with signing bonuses and/or perks like free food while on the clock. The warehouses and manufacturing facilities were in the $17-22/hr range. Then our state cancelled the extra federal unemployment benefits in June and maybe 30-50% of those signs went down. The state was forced to resume the extra unemployment benefits in mid July and so far the number of signs seeking help seems mostly the same as it has been for the last month, but it will be interesting to see if they start to pop back up over the next few weeks or not.

FWIW the $20/hour a a grocery store in a LCOL I saw is in a state that already had the unemployment extension expire some time ago. Talked to some people at work and while $20/hour seems to be on the high end for starting pay with no experience required, I heard a lot of a restaurants are advertising $18/hour to start with a $500 signing bonuses. So at least where I am the unemployment payments don't seem to be the critical factor.

[Car Jack]

One Marathon west of Boston:

State minimum wage is $13.50

CVS: $13.50
Home Depot: $15.50
Amazon: $15.50

One of my sons has worked for all three so far this year.  All are pretty f'd up companies with morons running the local locations.  Latest was HD, where like everyone else, they were begging for workers.  Hired a bunch of people, then somehow found that they didn't have the budget to hire those people.  Let go the last 10 hires, including my son.  Had they been competent enough to realize they couldn't hire all these people, son would not have quit his prior job at CVS.

I'm pretty convinced that all these employers crying "Oh, we can't find people" is simply bringing to light how incompetent those in charge of hiring really are.  There are PLENTY of people looking for workers. 

[yachi]

Local hospital has been trying to hire patient transport people for $15 an hour, which they advertised as a big jump from what they were paying.  They've been advertising this since January.  Lots of warehouse jobs are hiring maybe around $18 an hour.
Local 911 is hiring for $17 per hour, up to $21 per hour after training certifications, an extra $1 per hour for night shift, an extra $1.50 per hour for weekends.  They pay lots of overtime too.

Adjusting for inflation, I made $28.10 an hour at my first engineering job out of college.  Adjusting for inflation I made less than $12 an hour the summer before I graduated at a crappy summer job.

I'm glad people will be making good wages just starting out, but I'm worried this is a sign of inflationary pressure that's going to affect our cost of living and investments.

[Paper Chaser]

I live in a LCOL in the Midwest. Two months ago there were signs outside of most retail, food service and warehousing/manufacturing sites begging for help. The food service and retail places were usually in the $15/hr ballpark with signing bonuses and/or perks like free food while on the clock. The warehouses and manufacturing facilities were in the $17-22/hr range. Then our state cancelled the extra federal unemployment benefits in June and maybe 30-50% of those signs went down. The state was forced to resume the extra unemployment benefits in mid July and so far the number of signs seeking help seems mostly the same as it has been for the last month, but it will be interesting to see if they start to pop back up over the next few weeks or not.

FWIW the $20/hour a a grocery store in a LCOL I saw is in a state that already had the unemployment extension expire some time ago. Talked to some people at work and while $20/hour seems to be on the high end for starting pay with no experience required, I heard a lot of a restaurants are advertising $18/hour to start with a $500 signing bonuses. So at least where I am the unemployment payments don't seem to be the critical factor.

Yeah, there isn't enough data to suggest that the relatively brief period of reduced UE payments caused some to seek jobs. It could simply be that the companies that took their signs down simply offered more appealing situations and got the cream of the crop. It's all simply observational, and something that I'll pay a bit more attention to in the coming weeks.

[yachi]

One Marathon west of Boston:

State minimum wage is $13.50

CVS: $13.50
Home Depot: $15.50
Amazon: $15.50

One of my sons has worked for all three so far this year.  All are pretty f'd up companies with morons running the local locations.  Latest was HD, where like everyone else, they were begging for workers.  Hired a bunch of people, then somehow found that they didn't have the budget to hire those people.  Let go the last 10 hires, including my son.  Had they been competent enough to realize they couldn't hire all these people, son would not have quit his prior job at CVS.

I'm pretty convinced that all these employers crying "Oh, we can't find people" is simply bringing to light how incompetent those in charge of hiring really are.  There are PLENTY of people looking for workers.

I think this has a lot to do with things, and companies underestimated the time it would take to hire workers back.  We have a small local chain of sandwich shops that increased their prices (lost some business because of that) just as they started to only allow takeout during the pandemic (lost their waitresses because of that).  The closest location to us is only now reopening because they didn't have staff to open sooner.  It's the kind of place someone applies to for their first job because they like eating there, or someone they know works there.  Well, when no one works there, they can't get their employees to ask friends to join them.

[Ecky]

It would be helpful if more people listed exactly where they are and/or where these locations are.

I'm personally just outside of Burlington, VT. Before Covid I was seeing burger and bagel restaurants offering ~$15 an hour, and they couldn't hold onto people. I was impressed at the time, but it sounds like that's virtually commonplace now.

[Zikoris]

Minimum wage in my province is $15.20/hr right now. I think that's pretty decent for ringing up groceries etc.

[maizefolk]

Yeah, I suspect in 1-3 years we'll se an awful lot of new labor economics papers taking advantage of the natural experiments of when unemployment benefits stopped/restarted in different states to learn more about what the impacts were or were not (either would be interesting).

It would be helpful if more people listed exactly where they are and/or where these locations are.

Absolutely, but depending on what other information people have posted on the forum, posting a location may be enough for someone to dox themselves. I'm not comfortable posting my city/state so completely understand others who are reluctant to do the same.

From the admittedly anecdotal data posted so far, it's sounding like the surge in advertised starting salaries for jobs that don't require specific credentials has been larger in LCOL regions than a lot of the HCOL parts of the country. Which is not what I would have predicting, but having seen it I can certainly envision a plausible story where HCOL regions, which tend to be big dense cities, have more flex in their labor markets.

It would also consistent with trends from the pre-pandemic world where medium sized midwestern towns were seeing some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. NPR did a great story on Ames, Iowa, the town with the lowest unemployment rate anywhere in the country back in the summer of 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/721086615/in-this-town-you-apply-for-a-job-and-you-get-it

[SunnyDays]

Western prairie province - minimum wage is 11.90.  No one states wages on their ads (that I've seen) - you have to apply to find out.  You won't manage to live on that amount alone.

[Metalcat]

I was paying a minimum of $16/hr for very entry level jobs that required reasonable intelligence and social skills, but no real experience. Minimum wage here is $14/hr. But that was a year ago when it was easier to find staff, the shortages now have driven up wages and even signing bonuses.

[maizefolk]

Western prairie province - minimum wage is 11.90.  No one states wages on their ads (that I've seen) - you have to apply to find out.  You won't manage to live on that amount alone.

In normal years the same is generally true here as well. Just advertising a fixed starting wage (above minimum wage) was usually a sign a business was struggling to attract enough applicants for job openings.

Now there are signs, loudspeaker announcements, fliers all with wages stated up front. Many of the local businesses I patronize enough to be on their e-mail lists are also sending out mass emails to all of their customers encouraging them to apply for jobs.

[ChpBstrd]

In-person service industry businesses like restaurants and retail laid off many of their employees in 2020, then suddenly tried to hire them back in 2021. In the meantime, those employees went to work as delivery drivers, WFH call center reps, students of online courses, etc. Many ended up in better jobs with less exposure to COVID-19. Now these in-person service industry businesses are offering them their crappy old jobs back at the same pay rates with added exposure risk due to nobody masking and they’re finding they can’t fill the positions any more. The industries of the future took employees from the industries of the past.

Well, good riddance. The world doesn’t need more strip mall futuretrash retailers, fast food death-in-a-box drive throughs, or dead-end food service/ retail jobs that lock people deeper into poverty the longer they work them. If a rising cost of labor means Popeyes has to charge $15 for an artery clogging sandwich and nobody wants to pay that much then maybe fewer people die painful early deaths. That restaurant could be converted to a duplex and maybe the streets would have less litter from these places.

[maizefolk]

@ChpBstrd what sorts of advertised pay are you seeing for those sorts of roles in your neck of the woods?

[Jenny Wren]

MCOL moving toward HCOL small city with a lot of unskilled/low skilled workers. There is still a lack of entry level jobs here, except for at the usual suspects that are known for poor working environments and high turnover. Restaurants are still hiring at minimum wage or with a small "pandemic bonus" (an extra $1/hour seems average). Grocery stores are beginning to hire on extra as their deli's and hot bars are reopening, but nothing out of the ordinary and wages are set by the local union. A few of the locally owned places are also holding off on hiring due to worries about another shutdown, per a few restaurant owners that I know.

There has been a few labor shortages in some of the more skilled medium-waged labor industries. That is likely due from the lower middle class workers being priced out of the area and seeking employment in areas with LCOL.

[By the River]

I was driving through rural Alabama last week and saw that the McDonald's sign advertised a starting wage of $14/hour.  This was in a town of ~5,000 that is more than 40 minute from a city of around 100K, almost 2 hours from Birmingham. 

[yachi]

I was driving through rural Alabama last week and saw that the McDonald's sign advertised a starting wage of $14/hour.  This was in a town of ~5,000 that is more than 40 minute from a city of around 100K, almost 2 hours from Birmingham.

A dedicated group of 4 or more friends could get quite the start in life by just holding jobs at the local McDonald's and renting a place walking distance to it.

And still, a single parent of 2 kids in a community where driving is required will have a hard time making in on so little.

[ChpBstrd]

@ChpBstrd what sorts of advertised pay are you seeing for those sorts of roles in your neck of the woods?

I don't drive around a lot, but all I've seen are "now hiring" signs with no pay mentioned. So I took a look online. Glassdoor and PayScale say that entry level cashier and fast food jobs in my area bring in $8.50-14/h. Grocery stockers get $11-12/h. Security guards get $12-13. Overall I see very few pay rates advertised at the low end. Maybe if you have to ask, you're probably overqualified?

Perhaps low-skill workers are migrating to LCOL / low educational attainment areas like mine from MCOL/HCOL areas where one cannot live on wages like $15/h, creating an overabundance of candidates for these jobs where I live, and a shortage in MCOL/HCOL areas. People used to move to seek opportunity; now they move to escape outrageous housing costs. The unemployment rate in my deep-South state is about 3.5% lower than it is in CA or NY according to the BLS, but average and median wages are near the lowest in the U.S. according to Wikipedia.  The median worker in Massachusetts earns roughly 50% more, probably doing a very different type of work and definitely paying more than a few hundred dollars a month for housing.

[Fish Sweet]

The minimum wage around where I live is $15, so full time workers can make a whopping... $31.5k in one of the highest COL cities in the US. :)

Funny enough, my friend in NC is also reporting that local entry level "unskilled" jobs are purportedly offering $15 per hour... for the first two weeks of work, after which it drops back down to $7.25.  The bait 'n switch is that people who are on unemployment benefits can't turn down the job offer without also losing unemployment benefits, even if it pays poverty level wages.  They interviewed with at least 4 jobs that tried this tactic on them, which is pretty infuriating.

[nereo]

Rural NE - minimum wage here is $12. 

Lately the fast-food industry has been offering $15/hr minimum.  Some employers are offering $50 just to show up for your interview, so I’ve heard anecdotally of some people trying to apply for jobs they won’t take just to get the interview bonus.

I’ve also seen day laborer (construction) rates posted of $22/hr.

Virtually every business has a “help wanted” sign out front.  Our local unemployment is around 4%, so traditional economics suggest we are close to full employment here. Childcare seems like a major barrier to getting more people in work, and many daycare centers have closed or are at reduced capacity following Covid.  We had a state-wide shortage before the pandemic though, so this is just a bad situation that’s gotten worse.

[youngwildandfree]

The minimum wage around where I live is $15, so full time workers can make a whopping... $31.5k in one of the highest COL cities in the US. :)

Funny enough, my friend in NC is also reporting that local entry level "unskilled" jobs are purportedly offering $15 per hour... for the first two weeks of work, after which it drops back down to $7.25.  The bait 'n switch is that people who are on unemployment benefits can't turn down the job offer without also losing unemployment benefits, even if it pays poverty level wages.  They interviewed with at least 4 jobs that tried this tactic on them, which is pretty infuriating.

Well that's gross.

It's $15-$18 here for most places. But a lot of skilled labor is also $15-$20. Southeast.

[Fish Sweet]

The minimum wage around where I live is $15, so full time workers can make a whopping... $31.5k in one of the highest COL cities in the US. :)

Funny enough, my friend in NC is also reporting that local entry level "unskilled" jobs are purportedly offering $15 per hour... for the first two weeks of work, after which it drops back down to $7.25.  The bait 'n switch is that people who are on unemployment benefits can't turn down the job offer without also losing unemployment benefits, even if it pays poverty level wages.  They interviewed with at least 4 jobs that tried this tactic on them, which is pretty infuriating.

Well that's gross.

It's $15-$18 here for most places. But a lot of skilled labor is also $15-$20. Southeast.

It truly is.  Fortunately my friend wasn't dependent on unemployment, so it was no more than a hassle and a waste of time for them.  Other people probably weren't so lucky.

[Morning Glory]

Yeah, I suspect in 1-3 years we'll se an awful lot of new labor economics papers taking advantage of the natural experiments of when unemployment benefits stopped/restarted in different states to learn more about what the impacts were or were not (either would be interesting).

It would be helpful if more people listed exactly where they are and/or where these locations are.

It would also consistent with trends from the pre-pandemic world where medium sized midwestern towns were seeing some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. NPR did a great story on Ames, Iowa, the town with the lowest unemployment rate anywhere in the country back in the summer of 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/721086615/in-this-town-you-apply-for-a-job-and-you-get-it

I'm in a similar town. As long as I've lived here there have been help wanted signs everywhere. I'm currently seeing billboards and hearing radio ads wanting workers. Most low skilled jobs are $15-20/hr now.

Childcare shortage is a huge problem here too, and always has been.

[MudPuppy]

Just outside a MCOL (housing becoming higher though, unfortunately) Amazon warehouse is advertising “up to” $18. Fast food restaurants were offering $10 prior to/early Covid and now I’m seeing $13. There’s one that says name your price on their sign but they are notoriously awful to work for and the sign’s been up a while. 

[MayDay]

I live in a MCOL Midwest city (Mpls).

Target: starting at 15$
My company (manufacturing): starting at 19$, but you get a regular schedule, full benefits, paid time off, disability, 5000$/year tuition reimbursement, ~4000 a year profit sharing, etc etc etc. No idea how that compares to Target/etc but I am very happy with our benefits.  If you've done even minimal work in manufacturing you probably get more and you can move up fast if you are reliable and not a complete idiot.

Those are the only ones you have seen signs for or am personally aware of.

I see random temp agency signs around for ~10-12$ an hour and I wonder how they can get anyone.

[MayDay]

One Marathon west of Boston:

State minimum wage is $13.50

CVS: $13.50
Home Depot: $15.50
Amazon: $15.50

One of my sons has worked for all three so far this year.  All are pretty f'd up companies with morons running the local locations.  Latest was HD, where like everyone else, they were begging for workers.  Hired a bunch of people, then somehow found that they didn't have the budget to hire those people.  Let go the last 10 hires, including my son.  Had they been competent enough to realize they couldn't hire all these people, son would not have quit his prior job at CVS.

I'm pretty convinced that all these employers crying "Oh, we can't find people" is simply bringing to light how incompetent those in charge of hiring really are.  There are PLENTY of people looking for workers.

I think this has a lot to do with things, and companies underestimated the time it would take to hire workers back.  We have a small local chain of sandwich shops that increased their prices (lost some business because of that) just as they started to only allow takeout during the pandemic (lost their waitresses because of that).  The closest location to us is only now reopening because they didn't have staff to open sooner.  It's the kind of place someone applies to for their first job because they like eating there, or someone they know works there.  Well, when no one works there, they can't get their employees to ask friends to join them.

The data is pretty clear that a big reason is lack the of dependant care available. Both childcare and elder care/disabled person care.

When daycares have closed permanently and significantly reduced spots, summer camps aren't running, and adult day programs remain shuttered, a big chunk of people can't work. Or even if they are nominally open, they repeatedly close with no notice but employees are still expected to magically be at work.

Many people aren't even trying to find work because they know they can't get childcare or that their childcare will be extremely unreliable. They know their mental health can't take continued quarantines and trying to work while caring for dependants.

[maizefolk]

The data is pretty clear that a big reason is lack the of dependant care available. Both childcare and elder care/disabled person care.

When daycares have closed permanently and significantly reduced spots, summer camps aren't running, and adult day programs remain shuttered, a big chunk of people can't work. Or even if they are nominally open, they repeatedly close with no notice but employees are still expected to magically be at work.

Many people aren't even trying to find work because they know they can't get childcare or that their childcare will be extremely unreliable. They know their mental health can't take continued quarantines and trying to work while caring for dependants.

This would seem to be a pretty tricky deadlock to get out of. If people aren't taking jobs because they cannot get childcare, and child care operations are not reopening because they cannot hire enough people, it's not at all clear to me how we get from here to there as a society.

[Morning Glory]

The data is pretty clear that a big reason is lack the of dependant care available. Both childcare and elder care/disabled person care.

When daycares have closed permanently and significantly reduced spots, summer camps aren't running, and adult day programs remain shuttered, a big chunk of people can't work. Or even if they are nominally open, they repeatedly close with no notice but employees are still expected to magically be at work.

Many people aren't even trying to find work because they know they can't get childcare or that their childcare will be extremely unreliable. They know their mental health can't take continued quarantines and trying to work while caring for dependants.

This would seem to be a pretty tricky deadlock to get out of. If people aren't taking jobs because they cannot get childcare, and child care operations are not reopening because they cannot hire enough people, it's not at all clear to me how we get from here to there as a society.

Wisconsin has had universal Pre-K for four year olds since the 1970s. We could be like Wisconsin. Of course that won't help with shift work, that's a different beast. Daycare is open 6-6 around here, so no evenings, weekends, or nights if you don't have someone else to take care of the kids.

[RunningintoFI]

Yeah, I suspect in 1-3 years we'll se an awful lot of new labor economics papers taking advantage of the natural experiments of when unemployment benefits stopped/restarted in different states to learn more about what the impacts were or were not (either would be interesting).

It would be helpful if more people listed exactly where they are and/or where these locations are.

It would also consistent with trends from the pre-pandemic world where medium sized midwestern towns were seeing some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. NPR did a great story on Ames, Iowa, the town with the lowest unemployment rate anywhere in the country back in the summer of 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/721086615/in-this-town-you-apply-for-a-job-and-you-get-it

I'm in a similar town. As long as I've lived here there have been help wanted signs everywhere. I'm currently seeing billboards and hearing radio ads wanting workers. Most low skilled jobs are $15-20/hr now.

Childcare shortage is a huge problem here too, and always has been.

I'm going to guess based upon your tag line and comments on here that we are in or around the same city Morning Glory.  When I moved to this area, I was shocked to see the number of "help wanted" signs outside - especially given the unique design style used by employers in this area for signage.

[nereo]

The data is pretty clear that a big reason is lack the of dependant care available. Both childcare and elder care/disabled person care.

When daycares have closed permanently and significantly reduced spots, summer camps aren't running, and adult day programs remain shuttered, a big chunk of people can't work. Or even if they are nominally open, they repeatedly close with no notice but employees are still expected to magically be at work.

Many people aren't even trying to find work because they know they can't get childcare or that their childcare will be extremely unreliable. They know their mental health can't take continued quarantines and trying to work while caring for dependants.

This would seem to be a pretty tricky deadlock to get out of. If people aren't taking jobs because they cannot get childcare, and child care operations are not reopening because they cannot hire enough people, it's not at all clear to me how we get from here to there as a society.

Affordable daycare is especially tricky without it being subsidized or entirely paid for by the state (which is something I am a strong supporter of).  There’s a pretty low ceiling on how much a daycare can charge nad still be affordable to low-skilled workers making (at present) around $15. Daycares have to be licensed and the employees vetted for reasons that are self evident. There are strict caps on the number of children per child-care worker, and it requires a skillset and temperament which frankly few adults have.

Around here most daycare centers can’t charge less than ~$225/week and still stay solvent.  Even then that means they are trying to attract caregivers at around $20-22/hr in a competitive job market. If you are an entry-level single parent earning $15/hr and capped at 40hr/week, the daycare is a whopping ~42% of your entire take home pay.

All of which brings me to conclude that we need to subsidize daycare in a big way in this country, as they do in many other developed countries. Even if you want to look at this from a pure economic standpoint, having higher workplace participation and less time for mothers (in particular) to be out of the workforce winds up benefiting us in a very big way.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

I live in a LCOL in the Midwest. Two months ago there were signs outside of most retail, food service and warehousing/manufacturing sites begging for help. The food service and retail places were usually in the $15/hr ballpark with signing bonuses and/or perks like free food while on the clock. The warehouses and manufacturing facilities were in the $17-22/hr range. Then our state cancelled the extra federal unemployment benefits in June and maybe 30-50% of those signs went down. The state was forced to resume the extra unemployment benefits in mid July and so far the number of signs seeking help seems mostly the same as it has been for the last month, but it will be interesting to see if they start to pop back up over the next few weeks or not.

FWIW the $20/hour a a grocery store in a LCOL I saw is in a state that already had the unemployment extension expire some time ago. Talked to some people at work and while $20/hour seems to be on the high end for starting pay with no experience required, I heard a lot of a restaurants are advertising $18/hour to start with a $500 signing bonuses. So at least where I am the unemployment payments don't seem to be the critical factor.

If not unemployment payments (not saying it is or anything), what do you think the impetus is behind such steep rises in pay?

[maizefolk]

I live in a LCOL in the Midwest. Two months ago there were signs outside of most retail, food service and warehousing/manufacturing sites begging for help. The food service and retail places were usually in the $15/hr ballpark with signing bonuses and/or perks like free food while on the clock. The warehouses and manufacturing facilities were in the $17-22/hr range. Then our state cancelled the extra federal unemployment benefits in June and maybe 30-50% of those signs went down. The state was forced to resume the extra unemployment benefits in mid July and so far the number of signs seeking help seems mostly the same as it has been for the last month, but it will be interesting to see if they start to pop back up over the next few weeks or not.

FWIW the $20/hour a a grocery store in a LCOL I saw is in a state that already had the unemployment extension expire some time ago. Talked to some people at work and while $20/hour seems to be on the high end for starting pay with no experience required, I heard a lot of a restaurants are advertising $18/hour to start with a $500 signing bonuses. So at least where I am the unemployment payments don't seem to be the critical factor.

If not unemployment payments (not saying it is or anything), what do you think the impetus is behind such steep rises in pay?

It's not entirely clear to me. My big fear is/was that it represents straightforward inflation as that tends to show up in hours jobs that people get and leave frequently a lot faster than in salaried jobs. But that's not entirely consistent with what people in this thread are reporting where lots of high cost of living areas are still paying $12-15 while (some) LCOL ones are in the $18-20 range.

The idea of the deadlock with daycares unable to staff up to their 2019 levels because of a labor shortage and the lack of 2019 level daycare availability leading to a reduced labor supply seems a plausible factor. Although I don't think it'd explain the HCOL/LCOL split.

I've read labor force participation is still down a lot among people in their 50s/60s relative to 2019. Could be fear of being infected with the coronavirus or the experience of lockdown convincing them that retirement feels sufficiently better than work (even during a pandemic) that they moved up their dates to stop working. A lot of low cost of living parts of the country have older populations/labor forces than the country as a whole so this one might explain the biggest increases in starting pay in low cost of living regions. But who knows.

[yachi]

Re: daycare.  The other stumbling block I heard is some daycares reset their waiting list during the pandemic.  Just because you had a spot in daycare prior to the pandemic doesn't mean a spot is waiting for your now.  In normal times, many parents had to get on daycare waiting lists as soon as they find out about a pregnancy in order to have a spot.
I don't know if this was communicated to parents early on, but even if it was, judging when it was possible to go back to work, and when a daycare would be open in order to get a spot on a waiting list would not have been an easy task.

[nereo]

Re: daycare.  The other stumbling block I heard is some daycares reset their waiting list during the pandemic.  Just because you had a spot in daycare prior to the pandemic doesn't mean a spot is waiting for your now.  In normal times, many parents had to get on daycare waiting lists as soon as they find out about a pregnancy in order to have a spot.
I don't know if this was communicated to parents early on, but even if it was, judging when it was possible to go back to work, and when a daycare would be open in order to get a spot on a waiting list would not have been an easy task.

Yeah, we made the unforgivable sin of moving to a new town before our daughter was school agreed not once, not twice, but three times. Each move we dealt with 4-6 month waits Anna the same indigent comments (“why didn’t you sign up last year??!!”).

It’s crushing how immobile parents with small children are in the US system.

[roomtempmayo]

Mid-sized city

Fast food: $15-20/hr
Walmart: $15 min, with college tuition benefits
But UPS is leafleting the city offering $22/hr plus benefits, including college tuition
And about once a week the USPS puts a note in our box looking for mail carriers in a unionized workplace with federal benefits

[ender]

Suburbia in Minneapolis area, saw a couple signs yesterday.

$27/hr for Fedex warehouse and $15/hr for some restaurant (plus tips).

[LaineyAZ]

Here in Phoenix I've seen signs for Dairy Queen hiring at $13.50/hour and McDonald's across the street advertising $14/hour.  Lots of other openings at various places like Target and some mom-and-pop stores, although I don't know what starting wage they're offering.

May I say that I'm actually loving the fact that for the first time in many years the entry-level worker appears to have some leverage with companies? 
As a baby boomer I remember getting my first job in fast food at $2/hour, and the manager's attitudes were Hey, don't like it here, there's the door, I have a file full of applications from people who could replace you tomorrow.

Finally, I agree with others that child care needs to be subsidized.  I recall some college campuses having subsidized child care which was then also used as a working environment for students studying pre-school and elementary education - a win for everyone.  I wish we'd see more solutions like this. 

[secondcor521]

Boise Idaho advertises from $11 to $15 per hour all over town and they can't get enough takers.

McD is $13 starting and is not a teaser salary.

Walmart night shelf stocker is $15 plus.

The Lowes manager I asked said they hired a lot of new people recently - I think the longtime people could make more elsewhere.  He hinted that many of the newbies will probably fail the drug testing, but Lowes was desperate so they adjusted their hiring process.

[secondcor521]

Oh, I do wonder about a wage-price spiral, but I am just an armchair economist.

[LaineyAZ]

....

The Lowes manager I asked said they hired a lot of new people recently - I think the longtime people could make more elsewhere.  He hinted that many of the newbies will probably fail the drug testing, but Lowes was desperate so they adjusted their hiring process.

I wondered about this aspect too - that is, being a former felon would automatically disqualify you from almost any job, but maybe now the companies would be willing to give them a second chance?  Although I don't think being an active drug user would make for a good employee, I do believe in second chances. 
Wasn't it the Mens Warehouse chain who did that?