What a great idea! NOT!
Move to South Dakota, work at a designated retail business, and receive $1,000 cash.
That’s the premise of a new incentive from the South Dakota Retailers Association designed to address the workforce shortage in retail, restaurants, hospitality, grocery, trades and many other businesses.
Individuals from out of state who come to work in South Dakota can qualify to receive a $1,000 cash payment that would supplement any hiring bonuses or other incentives offered by an individual business.
It’s been awhile since I have taken a swipe at the SDRA, but this one is almost too easy. Who would move to South Dakota at the beginning of winter to take a no benefits part-time job that pays half of minimum wage (if you are a server) for a $1,000 bonus you don’t get for another 6 months? WTF? When I first read this, I thought maybe it was some kind of joke.
I have argued for a long time that the hospitality industry in South Dakota and across the country should offer at least a buy in to health benefits even if you are part-time. They should also offer PTO and compensate ALL tipped employees the full minimum wage. Minnesota did this several years ago and it hasn’t hurt the industry one bit, some would argue it has improved it.
As I told an elected official yesterday, “The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough hospitality workers in Sioux Falls, the problem is we have to many mediocre restaurants.†You know as well as I do that 99% of eating establishments in Sioux Falls are below average, not just on food quality, but service and price point. Maybe the solution to our problem is to have restaurants that pay their workers well ALL YEAR LONG, offer benefits and in return we will get a better experience as a consumer. But like most things in good old Sodak, it is about the greed of the business owner while the employee and the consumer are left in the dust.
Two funny
The devil is always in the details:
From the program outline:
“The first incentive installment of $500 will be paid after 90 consecutive days of employment at a physical location in South Dakota, averaging at least 30 hours worked per week at that business. The second $500 will be paid after 180 days of employment.”
A Whimpy-type of arrangement. “I will gladly pay you in March or April and again in June or July (contingent on satisfaction of specific conditions which are not totally in your control; i.e. scheduled work hours) for you to uproot your life and participate in an overheated rental housing market.
A good and well-intended gesture, but too small (need to think federal stimulus-type of dough).
Well, the $1000 should help with one month’s rent, huh? 😉
Wimpy’s is where you will be working, too.
You always want free stuff, now someone offers free stuff and it’s not good enough for you? Any of you build your own business and offer healthcare and a big paycheck? OR, do you just like to hear yourselves yap about how unfair it it that rich people are ….rich?
The teenagers of Taupeville need to get to work instead of sitting around and TikToking or doing narcissistic selfies on Instagram. Or, is that Snapchat now? I can’t keep up with it. #WhatTheHellIsMETA?
“‘The Teenagers of Taupeville’?”…. “That sounds like the title of a great book and/or movie”… “It could be a mixture of ‘The Breakfast Club’ and “A Nightmare on Elm Street'”… “AND, the last scene could take place at one of those new state-of-the-art car washes involving a black or white G-Unit”….
Who cares if some are rich? You can’t take it with you anyhow. I prefer nature and the bike trail. Now, that’s enrichment.
Take the thousand and live in your car at the parking ramp. Go to the Midco Bathhouse. Eat at The Banquet. Eventually you’ll leave for somewhere else with a viable cost of living.
D:(ly Spin,
I sincerely hope you either get the help you obviously need, or get back on your meds before you do something bad.
Instead of all this negativity….do you have an idea, any idea, that is better? (And handouts to the lazy or drunk don’t count).
I support the South Dakota Retailer’s Association 100%, I am not a member, I was a member back in 2015 and 2016, but their goal is always support and help lobby on behalf of Businesses; I am a member of the South Dakota Dealer’s Association and their goals are the same. Represent the Dealers in the auto industry, lobbying for laws that help us do business better in South Dakota. Many good ideas come out of these two groups. They are operated based on their membership, much of their revenues come from membership dues, advertising revenues from the members pooling their monies, and the end effects is ‘we’ build huge local lobbies to help shape our economic policies here in South Dakota.
The goal here is to put people back to work, which generates a better economy, giving people more freedom to come and go as they please.
Why does a town this size need numerous Starbucks all over, Silverstars left and right, even FOUR Walmarts. Then add numerous duplicates of crappy fast food restaurants (one not even built yet already committing to a second location 🙄 Apparently they haven’t heard about worker shortage.)
We have a consumerism problem while the city has a “tax all the things and all the people” problem. They truly believe the whole “if you build it, they will come” mentality but maybe we just don’t need to change to become a bigger city.
Negativity, money can’t buy you love. Federal stimulus checks made people lazy. Pride each day on the job works and must be restored. Higher wages and affordable housing will attract the right people. A thousand will only make for bringing more people here that eventually end up on welfare.
Do you remember when Sioux Falls had, I think, eleven 7-Elevens in town? These store fronts have since been replaced by pawn shops, casinos, fitness centers, and a bike shop. If you are not careful. It could become the story of your life as you pawn your bike, ignore your monthly membership dues, and then just head off to the casino. At least with a Big Slurpee you knew you still needed to ride your bike, head to a fitness center, and you still had some money left over too.
“..Pride each day on the job works and must be restored.”
But the Mayor will never go for that.
the only winners in the fast food/car wash/amazon type free-for-all are the real estate developers and the bankers. they get surely paid and many of these businesses will go under due to lack of employees…partly because of low wages and no where for them to live…and a very diluted customer base. the $1000 is a band aid on a bullet wound. absolutely a stupid idea. my partial solution to said problem would be fewer handouts to developers, but we know that will never happen.