If the inflation is up, why won't the employees demand more wage to cover the rising cost? It isn't like Applebee is a high-sought after career, isn't it?
Economic analysis has shown the low skill labor market has monopsony power. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/103530462110424...
This means the workers at applebees don't have much leverage to demand higher wages. Their options are accept a shitty job or don't work. This manager believes higher gas prices will force them to shift towards the "accept a shitty job" part of the spectrum.
The core idea is the more desperate people are, the lower you can push their wages.
Same reason exploitive employers oppose increasing the minimum wage, single payer, etc. Keeping people wretched means a steady supply of new bodies if the ones you're employing start thinking they can negotiate.
Currently it is definitely not a good time for those employers to talk about slashing wages or adding up hours, when there is literally a labour shortage in US.
The talk to exploit the high gas prices to their benefits sound nothing but delusional.
Think the premise is that people who work there don’t have many alternative options other than continuing to work for them. In addition, greater financial pressures presumably contributes to forcing them to remain employed where they already are.
These are not employees who get paid time off and can take days off to go looking for other jobs/interview.
Meaning any time they take to find another job might be eating into their finances even more, and really be more of the same (e.g., another restaurant).
If the inflation is up, why won't the employees demand more wage to cover the rising cost? It isn't like Applebee is a high-sought after career, isn't it?