Hotels Say Goodbye To Daily Room Cleanings and Hello To Robots as Workers Stay Scarce (npr.org) 159
An anonymous reader shares a report: This holiday season at the Garden City Hotel on Long Island, Merle Ayers is feeling especially grateful for the Whiz. At two feet tall and 66 pounds, the powerful robot vacuum doesn't mind working late into the night after the parties are over. The Whiz doesn't care that it's the holidays. It doesn't even need a day off. "It just needs to be cared for. We have to change the vacuum bags periodically and keep the batteries charged," says Ayers, the hotel's director of banquets. Amid ongoing staffing shortages, the two robot vacuums the hotel purchased late last year for about $30,000 each are proving their worth many times over, filling gaps in both the catering department and housekeeping.
"If we vacuum every floor with a robot, that saves one whole shift," says Garden City Hotel managing director Grady Colin. "That's one whole person per day that can be redeployed to do something else." These days, he'll take all the help he can get. Travelers have returned from the pandemic, but hotel workers have not, creating unprecedented staffing challenges for the hospitality industry. According to the Labor Department, there are 350,000 fewer people working in hotels today than there were in February 2020, before the pandemic. It's not for lack of trying. Hotels have raised hourly wages by 25% since early 2020, and employers are offering greater flexibility in scheduling. Still, workers are nowhere to be seen. "I've been in the hotel business for a long time," says Colin. "I've never seen anything like this."
"If we vacuum every floor with a robot, that saves one whole shift," says Garden City Hotel managing director Grady Colin. "That's one whole person per day that can be redeployed to do something else." These days, he'll take all the help he can get. Travelers have returned from the pandemic, but hotel workers have not, creating unprecedented staffing challenges for the hospitality industry. According to the Labor Department, there are 350,000 fewer people working in hotels today than there were in February 2020, before the pandemic. It's not for lack of trying. Hotels have raised hourly wages by 25% since early 2020, and employers are offering greater flexibility in scheduling. Still, workers are nowhere to be seen. "I've been in the hotel business for a long time," says Colin. "I've never seen anything like this."
25% compared to three years ago is just inflation (Score:5, Insightful)
So the pay is as shitty as ever and people wonder why those who were forced to find other employment aren't coming back.
Re: (Score:3)
I find that a lot of employers probably know their offerings are shit but they still cling to the hope that the workers won't notice.
It takes sleeping beauty some time to wake up...
I've been on the job hunt twice this year. As a senior IT specialist, I found that I don't get as many offers thrown at me as some more prestigious position might (like security or dev) but the need for my skills is very solid.
The interesting thing I noticed was that companies will proudly present their benefits, often be absolut
Re: (Score:2)
I find that a lot of employers probably know their offerings are shit but they still cling to the hope that the workers won't notice.
It takes sleeping beauty some time to wake up...
I've been on the job hunt twice this year. As a senior IT specialist, I found that I don't get as many offers thrown at me as some more prestigious position might (like security or dev) but the need for my skills is very solid. The interesting thing I noticed was that companies will proudly present their benefits, often be absolutely average and act very surprised when you don't jump for joy.
Gotta disclaimer this as being the situation in Switzerland... Can't speak for other countries and profession but I have a feeling that it's probably not just anecdotal...
There is a spectrum of people, who have a spectrum of drive and abilities.
There is a spectrum of jobs/careers as to difficulty/responsibility, and pay.
And there is automation. Yes, employers are having a bit of a time finding applicants for some of the low level jobs, and are replacing them with robots when possible. This may or may not be that great a thing for the people who used to have work doing the room cleaning. It depends on what the people who had previous employ there are doing now. If they
Business has betrayed peoples trust (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Business has betrayed peoples trust (Score:5, Insightful)
People were abandoned by their employers when things got tough, and they will never trust those businesses again. It is one thing to be fired when other jobs are available, but being thrown onto the street when ALL the jobs are gone is frightening, and those people are never going to come back. It is a basic survival instinct, if someone betrays you, you never trust them again, it is in our genetic structure. Those betrayed people are not coming back at any price, or even if they are forced to they will always be looking both for revenge and for a job somewhere else. It is human nature. I predict that any service industry that fired people during the worst of the pandemic is not going to find workers for the next decade or so.
It's more along the lines of people found better jobs after being laid off from hospitality and aren't in a rush to drop their less stressful and often better paying jobs to rush back to dealing with the arseholes in hospitality (both the employers and the customers, folks, always be nice to your hotel staff).
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, many will be forced back, looking for revenge and ready to jump ship at the slightest opportunity. Employers will reap what they have sewn.
Re: Business has betrayed peoples trust (Score:2)
Unfortunately, current wages are more of an either / or thing. As in buying food or paying rent.
Re: (Score:2)
Or not.
There's a whole lot of people who have dealt with folks dismissing their concerns for years, telling them they should get more skills and a better job if they don't want to be treated like shit. But they never had the time to do so because they were working 60+ hours a weak at shit jobs to pay their bills.
Then they suddenly found themselves unemployed with nothing *but* time on their hands for a couple years (and unemployment insurance keeping them afloat).
I'm willing to bet a whole lot of those peo
Re:25% compared to three years ago is just inflati (Score:5, Interesting)
We tend to employee a lot of first and second generation immigrants. Our staff are great people, hard working, and they deserve to be rewarded. We take care of them as best we can, we've long time offered near-guaranteed 40 hour weeks, medical, dental, 401k, things that cannot be assumed in our industry. More than half of our staff have been with us for longer than 10 years.
But we do not have the profit on the books to be able to raise wages much. it just isn't there. We aren't a tech firm that can command 20% profit margins.
It's easy to point the finger at service industries and manufacturing and say that we are all crooks that don't treat our staff well. But if we want to stay in business, we have to do so because that is what our industry demands. And to that point, it is what the consumer demands. The only way this will change is if the industry as a whole changes, and that will only happen once consumers are willing to pay higher prices. Until that happens, arguing that industry is all crooks is just ivory-tower window dressing.
Re: (Score:2)
Your maths doesn't make sense.
You say 0.2% typical profit, by which I presume you mean net margin? And explain "shareholders earn 0.2 pennies on it".
Firstly, now way a business can survive that close to the edge, where a tiny operational cost increase wipes you out.
Secondly, you are suggesting that all net profit goes to shareholder dividend, when in practice with those earnings they'd get nowt.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Once again, we need to look at see where the money is actually going. Check out the earnings and profits for Mars, PepsiCo, Tyson, Sysco, Cargill, and all of the other major food distributors and suppliers.
Once more it's the mega corporations who use their market dominance to dictate the prices paid to smaller regional and local businesses.
Re: (Score:3)
"I can't be responsible for every undercapitalized industry!" -- Hillary Clinton, on how employer mandates on small businesses would destroy a lot of businesses and jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
Then your business model SUCKS and you shouldnt try to foster that off on the WORKER.
It's not a business model that sucks. Its the customers demanding ever cheaper shit and not willing to support an industry to sustain itself.
By pointing to a business model specifically you are missing the issue here.
Re: (Score:2)
Then your business model SUCKS and you shouldnt try to foster that off on the WORKER.
It's not a business model that sucks. Its the customers demanding ever cheaper shit and not willing to support an industry to sustain itself.
By pointing to a business model specifically you are missing the issue here.
So your business model (producing ever-less-profitable less quality crap) does suck.
Other businesses have successfully pivoted to higher-margin markets. But that requires insight, and the willingness to invest in capital equipment, research, and people to make the shift happen.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes and no.
The reason consumers are demanding ever cheaper shit is because companies like the GP's don't pay them enough for them to be able to afford even the normal shit, once inflation is taken into account.
It's a chicken and egg problem. Pay your workers more and they won't be demanding the cheapest stuff, because they can afford better. But you can't pay your workers more because the margins are slim because customers (who are the workers) can only afford the cheapest stuff.
How do you fix this? You tak
Re: (Score:3)
Then your business model SUCKS and you shouldnt try to foster that off on the WORKER.
How would you suggest he change it? If he raises prices by 5%, no one buys anything and his business goes out of business.
His margins are so low because he is in a cut throat industry with presumably no competitive edge and everyone is competing to be the cheapest.
The reason tech can command high margins is because of 3 unique factors:
1) They can leverage a few employees to serve millions
2) They have a near monopoly. There aren't 100 googles or 100 facebooks.
3) The rate they charge advertisers is set
Re: (Score:2)
example: streaming services.
Robots break (Score:2)
Re:Robots break (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
You also save on benefits, if there are such, and other overhead. The cost of an employee is usually around 2-3x their annual salary.
Re: (Score:2)
You can't run robot vaccums 24x7 in a hotel - the clients won't stand for the noise.
Also, you have to do the rooms when there are no occupants in them. So you don't get the efficiencies of doing every room on the floor one after another.
Stuff lying on the floor - does the robot pick it up, suck it up, or just vacuum around it?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: robot vs human (Score:2)
If you have to spend $2200/mo fixing a robot vacuum (which you won't), then you bought a piece of shit.
Re: (Score:2)
the "guy" can free think and adapt to NEW situations. I would need to program and/or make entire new robots for new tasks.
Robots are fine for mundane things that are mostly static.
Re: (Score:2)
Copier repair is a semi-skilled trade. Robot repair would be about the same level.
Re: (Score:2)
The "guy" can be trained and used in multiple operations. The robot is specialized for a task. the "guy" can free think and adapt to NEW situations. I would need to program and/or make entire new robots for new tasks. Robots are fine for mundane things that are mostly static.
The "guy" most likely works for the robot vendor, not the hotel, servicing robot vacuums in his local territory. So while I'm sure he can also be trained to play guitar and make sushi along with repairing robot vacuums, I don't see the point in doing that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Even at $30k per robot, you could afford to keep an extra new one in the box. at 5% interest, that is only $150/year to keep a
spare employee in the closet.
Chances are, the repairs even at $100/hour would only be a couple times a year so maybe an extra $1000 on top of the $30k.
No missed shifts, no downtime, no calling in sick, etc...
It's a complete win for a hotel. It makes no sense for a hotel to hire a human to vacuum empty hallways unless the employee
is already on the payroll for something else and just
Re: (Score:2)
I used to stay in hotel rooms a lot. Most of them are kind of designed around daily cleaning which is what makes it complicated. Sure, you can easily make the bed yourself and tidy up, but often times you will need additional towels or something "cleaned" because it is a low-maintenance surface or object that just requires a little special touch every day. Or, things like the towels aren't really designed to be re-used, they are essentially designed to be cleaned every day (low quality but durable materi
Maybe the workers have better jobs elsewhere (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Maybe the workers have better jobs elsewhere (Score:4, Interesting)
That's the problem - it sure seems like they don't have jobs.
It gets glossed over a lot, but the current unemployment rate is lower than it should be, because at least a million workers stopped working AND stopped looking. They're nowhere to be found in the stats, which should bother you. They're still out there, they're just sitting in their parents' basement, or whatever.
It's also hard to find ANY industry with more people working in it. Every employer you talk to is complaining about being short of workers. In my business (conventions and meetings), they estimate we're almost 30% short. They've increased pay by a lot (I'm making 50% more than I made three years ago, and I wasn't low paid by any measure then), but they still can't get enough people to do the work, so they're having to pay a lot more due to overtime.
Re: (Score:3)
Compared with 15 years ago, a lot more than a million people have stopped looking for jobs. We have a smaller fraction [bls.gov] of people employed plus a smaller fraction [bls.gov] of people looking for work.
Re: (Score:2)
It gets glossed over a lot, but the current unemployment rate is lower than it should be, because at least a million workers stopped working AND stopped looking. They're nowhere to be found in the stats, which should bother you.
It bothers me a lot. Every president tells the same lies, so both parties let each other get away with it. Shadow Stats has an alternative unemployment chart that accounts for those people [shadowstats.com], and others. It says what I've been saying here for over a decade, so I may be a bit biased, but their math shows the official unemployment rate growing ever more divorced from reality.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
An important question is why these people are not looking for work though.
Important yes, but we already know the answer, for some value of "we" that includes people who know how to internet. Two-thirds of workers said a low salary is the main reason a job posting did not appeal to them [yahoo.com].
We are at the tail end of one of the hottest job markets in modern history
For whom? People who can live on starvation wages?
there is no reason for anyone to drop out of the job market due to being unable to find a job.
If only you could hear what you sound like from some position other than one of privilege.
Re: (Score:2)
Workers aren't scarce (Score:2, Insightful)
Workers aren't scarce, wages are.
Pay a living wage and people will show up to work. Otherwise, they literally can't afford to be there.
The people complaining that it's hard to find workers are literally all either assholes or idiots. There is no third option.
If your business plan doesn't provide for a living wage for your workers, it's a shitty plan, and you're a shitty planner.
Re: (Score:3)
Workers aren't scarce, wages are.
Pay a living wage and people will show up to work. Otherwise, they literally can't afford to be there.
The people complaining that it's hard to find workers are literally all either assholes or idiots. There is no third option.
If your business plan doesn't provide for a living wage for your workers, it's a shitty plan, and you're a shitty planner.
What is the living wage?
I've seen a number of different answers to that question, and some are pretty breathtaking. It really isn't that easy.
My favorite example is back in 1979 - a co-worker who was making well into 6 figures which was damn good wages at that time always complained to me about not being paid enough. I was just cracking 5 figures at the time and though not wealthy, I was doing okay. All a matter of definition, and fiscal discipline.
We always run into these issues - what is an entry
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
What is the living wage?
That's a complicated question, but it's not such a gotcha as you might think. Instead, the answers reveal just how corrupt the whole system is. For example, it'd be a lot lower with rent control, instead of the polar opposite we have now — most housing under the control of businesses all using the same software to create a pricing cartel. It would also be a lot lower with a public health care system.
I'm all about minimum wage being one that doesn't require a person to get government assistance.
You can't get the government out of the equation no matter how hard you try. You can only decide where
Re: (Score:3)
Rent control will just create lotteries, you have to solve artificial scarcity.
The current situation is an unholy combination of "I've got mine" upper class greens (urban sprawl is evil, if you can't afford a home in an upper class community you should have section 8 next to you), middle class NIMBYs (fuck off with your subsidised high density housing) and government just compromising by allowing almost nothing to be build.
Re: (Score:2)
Capitalism will build more housing, but you have to get government out of the way. And no, I am not talking fire codes.
Re: (Score:2)
Capitalism will build more housing, but you have to get government out of the way.
Most of the places where there aren't empty housing units, there's no water for increased population anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
What is the living wage?
That's a complicated question, but it's not such a gotcha as you might think.
Except it isn't a gotcha. And yes, complicated AF.
Instead, the answers reveal just how corrupt the whole system is. For example, it'd be a lot lower with rent control, instead of the polar opposite we have now — most housing under the control of businesses all using the same software to create a pricing cartel. It would also be a lot lower with a public health care system.
No argument on the Public healthcare. I think the NYC experiment with rent control didn't work out too well though.
The issue -
Re: (Score:2)
Pay a living wage and people will show up to work. Otherwise, they literally can't afford to be there.
Living wages aren't scares, generous consumers are. If consumers are willing to pay more for altruism then people can afford a living wage. Otherwise they literally can't afford to stay in business.
This is why minimum wage laws are a thing. Businesses didn't just race to the bottom for the hell of it, consumers pushed them in that direction demanding ever cheaper shit and then complaining about the quality of service and products.
If your business plan doesn't provide for a living wage for your workers, it's a shitty plan, and you're a shitty planner.
Congrats, you've just declared multiple whole industries employing millions of
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe consumers have been "educated/trained" to look at the cost of everything and the value of nothing?
I'm quite happy to pay 20%-30% more to get something that I know will both (a) do the job, and (b) last long after the cheap crap is in a landfill somewhere. Because deep down I'm cheap - I don't want to have to buy the same product 3-4 times.
I'm looking through the Christmas flyers, lots of really cheap big screen TVs with what USED to be name brands, all of those brands having gone bankrupt and
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe consumers have been "educated/trained" to look at the cost of everything and the value of nothing?
No maybe about it. My fundamental point is the race to the bottom is driven by consumer demand.
Re: (Score:2)
If your business plan doesn't provide for a living wage for your workers, it's a shitty plan, and you're a shitty planner.
Although I don't completely disagree with you, if you were an executive at Mcdonalds or Burger King, what would you do differently?
If you raised menu prices enough to pay everyone a living wage, everyone would go to one of your competitors across the street instead.
Yes, these companies do make profit and pay executives well but not near enough extra to pay everyone a living wage without pricing
themselves out of the market.
Their solution to stay competitive is to use robots and automation to reduce the numbe
Re: (Score:2)
Although I don't completely disagree with you, if you were an executive at Mcdonalds or Burger King, what would you do differently?
Not lobby against minimum wage increases [cnn.com].
Re: Workers aren't scarce (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If your business plan doesn't provide for a living wage for your workers, it's a shitty plan, and you're a shitty planner.
Although I don't completely disagree with you, if you were an executive at Mcdonalds or Burger King, what would you do differently? If you raised menu prices enough to pay everyone a living wage, everyone would go to one of your competitors across the street instead. Yes, these companies do make profit and pay executives well but not near enough extra to pay everyone a living wage without pricing themselves out of the market. Their solution to stay competitive is to use robots and automation to reduce the number of employees needed. Raising wages is not an option.
Well, if you can't get employees at that salary level, neither can your competitors. So you need to compete on efficiency and paying your staff enough.
That said, I doubt McDonald's and Burger King are afraid of the competition if they have to raise salary levels to get employees. They're afraid of losing sales - people not stopping and getting that extra meal they shouldn't be having, eating at home, preparing coffee at home etc.
Daily cleaning was always a waste anyway. (Score:2)
I've always thought this was an area where hotels were being wasteful, of both money and on environmental grounds.
Unless you're a total slob and/or don't ever pick up after yourself you shouldn't need the floors done and sheets changed daily. I
Re: (Score:2)
OK, putting the staffing issue to the side for a moment, I've always felt a daily clean was OTT when I and occasionally a girlfriend were the only ones occupying the room. I'd always leave the "do not disturb" sign out for 2 or so days unless something happened.
Same here. We've been doing the every three day model, usually after the bath towels were used up.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree with you, but hotels did it anyway for two reasons:
(1) You and I may not be the norm, and they didn't want customers complaining if their room wasn't cleaned
(2) Security theater due to the latest panic of the week, whether it's human trafficking, the Las Vegas shooting, meth labs, or North Korean spies.
I'd like to see that (Score:3)
I'm a old fart but I've been in many, many hotel-rooms with women in my life and after the 3rd day, all the visible vacuum-able floor-space is littered with shopping bags, shoe-boxes and other crap.
You can't even imagine what an hotel-room looks like, where 2 teen girls have been hanging around for a few days.
Even human vacuums can't handle that.
Re: I'd like to see that (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Hotel rooms are not typically vacuumed while occupied. There's a reason a typical service in the room takes about 10min, but on checkout day they ask you to leave at 10am but don't let the next person check in until 2pm. A lot more things happen to a hotel room after people take their shit with them.
If you've ever lived in a hotel you'll see that typically after 1-2 weeks you get a note slipped under the door asking you if the room can be deep cleaned the following day.
What They are Not Telling You In this Story (Score:5, Interesting)
The thing they are not mentioning in this story is that the the main reason that they cannot find people to work for them is that rents for Apartments or just rooms to live in for Long Island are SO high that people can't afford them. It is so bad that Long Island is having problems just getting Teachers and administrators for businesses to go there. Just google high rents and Long Island to see the problem.
This is a direct outgrowth of the rental businesses wanting high rents at all costs and owners renting out only during "peak" times. I.E. short term profits over long term community stability. But it's not just Long Island. Because of Big Business starting to buy up single family homes and using them as rentals, many communities are going to start seeing this society destruction effect first hand. I'm not a big "government intervention" type of person but the government is going to have to step in here and limit this just for the good of society. It is either that or there is going to be one h*ll of a revolution when big business has most of the homes and the citizens are all renting and can't afford it. And no, I'm not being alarmist here. When South Africa gave land back to their Native Population starting in 1991 they did so for both moral and practical reasons. The main practical reason was that if they didn't, they knew that the next government in power would be a Communist one. I don't remember where I read that but it made a very deep impression on me when I did.
Re: (Score:3)
The thing they are not mentioning in this story is that the the main reason that they cannot find people to work for them is that rents for Apartments or just rooms to live in for Long Island are SO high that people can't afford them. It is so bad that Long Island is having problems just getting Teachers and administrators for businesses to go there. Just google high rents and Long Island to see the problem.
It's not just there. I live in a suburb of a 2nd-tier city in a fly-over state. Before I bought my current house I rented a townhouse from a local company. It was nice, and reasonably priced. Last time I looked at their prices (just out of curiosity) was in 2019 and it had gone up a little under $100 per month from when I lived there in 2017. I checked again last month and it had almost tripled in price per month, in less than 3 years. That 900 sqft townhome now costs more than my mortgage payments on a 20
Re: (Score:2)
I checked again last month and it had almost tripled in price per month, in less than 3 years.
My idiot friend, against my advice, purchased rental property at the top of the market AND got variable rate mortgage. Fear of missing out. When we recently spoke and I asked, mortgage costs up significantly and consequently so is rent. Now, I don't think renters should be on the hook for bad financial decisions for landlords, but this is likely what is driving rent cots up.
Re:What They are Not Telling You In this Story (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Expectation of daily cleanings (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why make a bed other than for presentation for other people?
I don't mean change the sheets every day.
Don't Believe That There Are No Workers (Score:2)
"Person Can Be Redeployed" to Unemployment Line (Score:2)
The UK jobs market (Score:2)
The UK Government is trying to encourage retired people in their fifties to come back to work because there's a shortage of workers here in the UK, exacerbated by the barriers to immigration for workers from abroad imposed by Brexit.
When COVID-19 hit a lot of people in that age bracket with a decent pension and the house mostly paid off decided to quit their jobs and retire rather than struggle through another decade of work before retiring in their sixties as they had planned to do.
A lot of these younger "
Filthy (Score:2)
Hotels (in the US) were filthy when humans did the "cleaning". They will continue to be filthy when robots do the "cleaning."
Who needs a daily clean anyway? (Score:2)
The very first thing I do in every hotel is put on the "Do not disturb" door handle and leave it there permanently. I don't want hotel staff to mingle among my personal belongings during my stay.
Whiz robots, pros and cons (Score:2)
Pro: They can ease on down, ease on down the road.
Con: They don't carry nothin' that might be a heavy load.
Hotels have been cheaping out for years (Score:3)
For years now, hotels have been finding any and every excuse to cheap out on housekeeping services.
First, it was something about "yadda, yadda, the environment" often with a picture of a snowy owl that's supposedly being saved.
Then it was something about "yadda, yadda, COVID", which might have been more reasonable, if it was temporary.
Now they basically don't even try anymore.
At this point, I'm honestly flabbergasted if I stay in a hotel that actually provides daily housekeeping services. More often it might be once every second or third day, or even only between guests.
Re: No workers? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Translation: let's just lower everyone's pay by diluting the labor market.
Re: (Score:2)
Except it doesn't work like that. First, he clearly stated that most are filling jobs we're already refusing to do.
Second, people who work here live here. They need housing, buy food, clothes, shoes, cars, TVs and appliances. Everyone pays taxes, even if just sales tax on purchases. And the more money they make, the more they spend.
If we took a trillion dollars and gave it to billionaires the net effect on the economy would be zilch. If we took a trillion dollars and gave it to the average worker then that
Re: No workers? (Score:2)
People arenâ(TM)t willing to do those jobs because the wages are too low genius. Basically you want to give abusive corporations a source of cheap labor
Re:It's basic mathematics (Score:5, Informative)
It is just math, and it's worse than you think.
Say you want to pay a single person $50k a year running a hotel. Say you are generous and give them benefits and such, so your cash cost for that salary is roughly $67k (people often forget the minimum14% employer's portion of Social Security and medicare). This means you need 365 room-nights at $183 a night worth of revenue just for that single person. This doesn't include building cost, utilities, or anything else - that is only a single person.
I hypothesize that most people complaining "why don't employers just pay their people more" haven't ever really tried to run a business. For every megacorp that is indeed rolling in billions of dollars, there are ten small or medium businesses barely scraping by.
Remember, the megacorps get mega because they are getting a relatively small amount of profit from a massive network - they aren't really making lots of money on each transaction (and no, 30%-40% gross margin is not "massive" amounts of money).
Re: (Score:3)
Remember, the megacorps get mega because they are getting a relatively small amount of profit from a massive network - they aren't really making lots of money on each transaction (and no, 30%-40% gross margin is not "massive" amounts of money).
I doubt many mega corps are running on margins that tight, although I'm sure a few are. I'm familiar with a grocery chain and a large pizza chain from past jobs. The grocery store had a gross margin around 40-60%, and the pizza chain 60-70%.
Re:It's basic mathematics (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
(people often forget the minimum14% employer's portion of Social Security and medicare)
Last I knew, it was 7.65% (6.2% for SS and 1.45% for Medicare) with the other 7.65% paid by the employee.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah whoops, yeah I included employer+employee there in the 14%. If you're self-employed, though, you have to pay all of it...so, fun!
Re: (Score:2)
Ah whoops, yeah I included employer+employee there in the 14%. If you're self-employed, though, you have to pay all of it...so, fun!
It's still ultimately paid by the employee, though. After all, where do you think the money to pay the employer's share comes from - thin air? No, it's profits from the employee's work. Same as the employer's share of, say, medical benefits.
Your numbers are just wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
As for your specific example that assumes you only have one room in your entire hotel. Instead you've got hundreds of rooms in your hotel that you're packing with people. Usually business travelers with a smattering of tourists. A couple dozen of your rooms out of several hundred pay for everyone on staff and the rest is pure profit.
If anyone here ever worked in a restaurant think of that pot of coffee Brew every morning. If you sell one cup out of that pot everything else you sell out of that pot is profit.
Successful businesses that aren't just some rich doctors wife's hobby business are incredibly profitable. Mega corporations have to show incredible profits and growth every quarter or their CEOs get replaced. Corporate profits have fight to turn the cove in pandemic and the wealth of the 1% has literally doubled. In the last 40 years we've shifted 50 trillion, with a t, dollars to the 1% with another 6.5 trillion on top of that during the covid pandemic.
I'm sorry but everything in your post is fundamentally incorrect about how business is our economy and our society function. Take a moment to read my comment over again and reflect on it.
Re:Your numbers are just wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes but you are looking at the profit of the entire chain, not if you are trying to run a single hotel. And yes a hotel has more than one room - but it doesn't change the picture; you still need however many room-nights of revenue to cover costs. Costs tend to go up with more rooms, so there is some balance point, you have to account for occupancy rate, etc. etc.
The coffee example: you are looking at a single pot of coffee in isolation, not the pot of coffee plus the stores, lights, electricity, property tax... etc. It's people that think "hey I can pay for an entire pot of coffee if I just sell one cup" that are the people that go out of business quickly.
I fully agree that the culture of "corps must always have growing profits" instead of "corps should maintain a healthy, sustainable level of profit" contributes to many problems. Corporations don't have to show these profits. There is nothing stopping you or anyone else from forming a company that doesn't have "infinite exponential growth" as its goal.
Be the change you want - start your own "perfect company" if it's so easy.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes. Breaking news: Business have expenses that must be paid from income. Film at 11. But if you look at corporate profits, it seems that there has been a steady increase over the decades that is kept as profit rather than paid to employees.
It has reached a breaking point, owners threw the memo in the trash and now it's broken.
Perhaps now, business owners will push back harder on the land owners charging rapacious rents. That could help them directly, and by also reducing costs their employees must bear, co
Re: (Score:2)
We can see them in the profits of every hotel chain.
Problem is, most hotel chains are heavily franchised. Looking at the chain's P&L doesn't give you insight into the hotels themselves.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Wrong (Score:3)
Corporate profit margins are higher than ever. The pandemic let companies jack up prices across the board. And we’re stuck paying it. https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]
Non paywall link too https://archive.ph/grzCx [archive.ph]
Re:Wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
"Lets"?
If a huge beer belly of cash weren't introduced, there wouldn't be the free money to jack up prices at whim.
The prices will stabilize as greed pulls things back together and the supply of money stabilizes.
Until then, your theory is literally (and I mean this) a crafted lie by those who inject things into the top of echo chambers.
Everyone knew this would happen, predicted it, and sighed when it did.
We are people of science! When theories make predictions that come true, that gives us confidence in the theory.
Re: (Score:2)
THIS!
If this was actually inflation rather than profit taking, corporate profits would be down, not up.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, the income from 1 room to pay the manager, out of a couple hundred.
Re: It's basic mathematics (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That is the best business practices can muster in an ancient industry that has had all costs long since wheedled out of it, with any noticible new efficiencies being few and far between.
Re: (Score:3)
It's even worse than that - for ages, the "industry" depended on illegal labour, illegal work practices, and is basically shit. Surprise surprise that when people have other options, they don't go back to abusive crooked employers.
They can't make it if they were in full compliance, so they need to die. Less competition (killing off the scum employers) means the ability to raise prices for those that remain, and pay a fair wage.
If your business model depends on you screwing over your employees, you need
Re: It's basic mathematics (Score:3)
Funny what happens when the one-step-above-slave-labor market dries up, you know?
Decades of hearing how the work was so simple you almost didn't need to pay people to do it dashed to bits on the jagged rocks of reality. Food service, hospitality and other industries seem to be having a devil of a time finding people to work for next to free with no benefits! Who ever would have thought?
The fact that even raising wages by 20+% has had little effect should be a wakeup call, luckily we have talking heads sayin
Re: (Score:2)
I know people who made the jump from the "hospitality sector" to real jobs thanks to COVID shutting things down. When things started opening up again, an offer of 20% wouldn't be enough - they were making more, with better (and guaranteed) hours.
And of course the whole "well, if you know someone ..." referral system also dried up, because they would have referred anyone they knew to the better jobs where they now work.
Nobody likes to be told to punch out early because it's a slow night, then be called
Re: It's basic mathematics (Score:3)
The point is that idiot Bernie bros and their kind always bitch about wages being too low, but then they complain about goods and services they buy being too expensive. They think that somehow they can have things both ways, but in reality the numbers just don't work.
They make other dumb arguments like saying the management should get paid less so the workers can get more, but then you run into another reality: Managers are workers too. Just like the line workers, they want to get the most pay for their lab
Re: (Score:2)
Where is this wonderful place where we get cool cars and have group sex?
I need to know where to go!
Re: (Score:3)