Labor has always been laundry's largest operating cost and in mid July the US House of Representatives voted on increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. While this won't pass the senate, the 2020 election is just around the corner, impacting an estimated 33 million workers that would be due for a raise in the US.
In a study conducted by American Laundry News, laundry operators were asked about their thoughts on raising the minimum wage and they found that overall, about 45% of operators actually supported raising it. This is mainly because they understand that even though laundry is considered a low skilled job, that there are many hazards that come along with it and the employees should be compensated for working long hours in fairly harsh conditions. Operators do not, however, agree that minimum wage should be raised to $15/hr as many states are starting to push toward. Some reasons they support raising the minimum wage are:
Some reasons operators oppose raising the minimum wage are:
Operators were asked if they think that rising the minimum wage would decrease employee turnover or increase employee retention. They found that 28.6% agree that raising the minimum wage would help keep employees in their plant but 42.9% said they disagree that it would keep their employees around. Overall, this study found that in general, people support raising the minimum wage even though they don’t believe it will help competition in getting employees. This obviously doesn’t give any solution to the employers who have to compete in wages with others who pay more, so what should they do to keep employees without needing to burn a hole in their pocket competing with companies that can afford it?
Haworth, a furniture manufacturing plant, instead believes that changing around scheduling and providing better amenities for its workers is the best way to keep them around, not necessarily by increasing its wages. Like manufacturing, laundry experiences nearly the same conditions and is now competing in a wage war within the industry. So, rather than increasing wages and then needing to either increase selling prices or lay off workers to offset the new labor costs, plants can begin to treat blue-collar workers more like white collar workers. This goes back to our lesson about retaining employees because it helps decrease employee turnover and the costs that go along with it.
One way they are trying to make working there better for their employees is giving them a 3-day weekend every two weeks. Having more flexible scheduling like this is a good way to make sure workers stay happy while working there because it is nice to have an extra day off every once in a while, and may even motivate them to work harder while they are in. Another way they are trying to make their working conditions better is by improving the amenities employees have access to such as bathrooms and break rooms.
“Being nice is ROI positive.”
- Gary Vaynerchuk, Vaynermedia and VaynerX
Homebase, a management consultant company, asked over 2,000 hourly workers what the most important aspects are when choosing a place to work. The highest-ranking factor was pay; however, the next highest factor was having a positive environment and flexible schedules. In many cases workers will choose the company that have a clean and fun environment over one that is awful to work in even if it pays more. Simply speaking, you should improve amenities for workers because it is the right thing to do. Kindness goes a long way in today’s world and will greatly improve employee retention and in turn, reduce the effect the wage wars will have on your business.
