With the pandemic raging on and continuous failures to improve work conditions, Americans have been quitting en masse in an event called the “Great Resignation.” This was a long time coming and these workers deserve to seek better conditions and quality of life.

While Americans have been quitting from all sectors, low-wage jobs in retail and food service have taken some of the biggest hits, which by all means makes sense. Low-wage workers are involuntarily propped up as figureheads for lousy workers with poor decision-making, or the boogeyman that parents warn their kids about becoming.

Consumers cannot demand the labor of low-wage workers while simultaneously degrading them. 

The minimum wage in many states varies, but the federal minimum wage currently sits at a miserable $7.25. If a minimum wage employee worked full-time, they could only afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment in 7% of U.S. counties before taking into account other necessities.

It makes no sense for low-wage workers to work themselves to the bone all while a pandemic impacts every aspect of their lives. With politicians refusing to bump the minimum wage up and executives refusing to fairly compensate workers for their efforts, it comes as no surprise that Americans are leaving their jobs in droves.

It’s shocking that it hadn’t happened earlier.

Granted, this massive departure of workers is negatively impacting many who remain. With establishments struggling to keep up while being understaffed, those who remain must either spread themselves thin to keep up or will come to find their hours cut.

The workers who remain deserve people’s utmost respect and sympathy for toughing it out, however this does not make those who left the villains either.

Workers should not have to cling to hopes of raises, paid time off or healthcare in order to stay at jobs that provide none of that. They are not at fault for choosing themselves over jobs that see them as a means to an end rather than a person.

“The Great Resignation” forcefully tells executives that workers will no longer accept below the bare minimum of compensation for their work, and it will hopefully pay off in the end. Workers are already seeing a spike in wage growth.

Workers deserve better, and it’s exciting seeing them realizing their worth.