Conversations about increases in the minimum wage are in the past tense – at least in California.
“How is the increase affecting you?”
“Have you had to bump up workers who were a dollar above the minimum by 50c or a dollar?”
“Can you get anyone to work at minimum wage?”
“Can you get any qualified applicants at any rate?”
From every sector of the economy, I’m hearing of long term employees taking jobs at other firms that offer them more pay, or a new opportunity or it is closer to home.
Don’t think this is just lower wage employees. I’ve heard of high level operations managers, partners at law firms, senior sales executives, insurance brokers with a good book of business, and of course mid-level managers who might have looked since 2008, but were not tempted in the uncertain economy. Most of these folks were not looking. The offer came out of the blue. Your company story must be more compelling than that siren song from the land of green green grass on the other side of the fence.
This affects you in 3 ways:
- You might be able to pick up some talent that wouldn’t have considered a change before;
2, You might lose good employees who aren’t looking that get solicited out of the blue;
- You may have to raise the pay in certain positions pro-actively to retain your very best people.
Most people wait until a really good employee leaves to get a jump on this. Don’t be that employer. Start addressing the issue this week. By next week, you might be chasing a good employee as they walk out your front door.
picture courtesy of chooseust.com