But discussions around compensation were also nuanced, Putnam noted.
“Contrary to the conversation that people do not want to work anymore, we found people who are really interested in work, but they have a lot of other things that they’re considering,” Putnam said. “So many people are looking for work that still can’t find it,” one participant said. “All we hear is like the economy’s coming back, the economy is coming back, but how are so many people looking for jobs?”
As a result, lower-income workers were often being shouldered with additional job responsibilities without seeing an increase in pay. Even if they were paid by the hour, they were covering the duties of multiple positions at once during shifts, the report said, and often they were tasked with enforcing health and safety measures.