The Wall Street Journal has published what may be the most Wall-Street-Journal-y piece on immigration imaginable.
It’s on the difficulty restaurants are having in finding and keeping dishwashers, a situation exacerbated by Orange Man Bad.
The context:
More than 12 million people work in the U.S. restaurant and bar industry. Dishwashers occupy one of the humblest rungs, but they are among the most badly needed. . . .
Rick Cardenas, CEO of Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants, said dishwashers are his top employment concern. . . .
[Dishwashers are] essential workhorses, often the last to leave at night, after mopping floors and taking out the trash. . . .
“Without them, our operation would cease,” said Nichole Thomson, the restaurant’s general manager.
Wow, a job so “badly needed” and “essential” must command really good wages, right? Not exactly:
Dishwashers’ pay averages around $32,500 a year, ranking in the bottom third of restaurant jobs, according to jobs platform Indeed.
. . .