AND GIVE EM BENEFITS
Biden whispers the quiet part out loud on the labor shortage: 'Pay them more!'

"This is the employees' bargaining chip now [Employers] are going to have to compete and start paying hard-working people a decent wage."

bwinck@businessinsider.com (Ben Winck) 

 President Joe Biden. Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images

The solution to attracting workers is to simply "pay them more!" Biden whisper-shouted on Thursday.

Massive demand for workers gives Americans a new "bargaining chip" for earning higher pay, he added.

The comments come as businesses are hiking wages and offering incentives as they scramble to rehire.

The solution to the labor shortage is, according to President Joe Biden, as simple as a higher wage.

The president allayed a range of concerns around the economy during a Thursday press conference. Among them is the nationwide labor shortage, which has seen hiring slow despite millions of Americans still being unemployed. The shortage may be delaying a full labor-market recovery, but he told journalists at the White House there's an easy solution.

"I remember you were asking me ... 'Guess what? Employers can't find workers.' I said, 'Pay them more!'" the president said in his distinctive whisper-shout.

The refrain has been popular with Biden as businesses rush to attract workers. The president said in May that the accelerating rate of wage growth was a "feature" and "not a bug" of the post-pandemic economy. Increased competition between employers gives Americans more "dignity and respect in the workplace," he added.

"This is the employees' bargaining chip now," he said on Thursday. "[Employers] are going to have to compete and start paying hard-working people a decent wage."

The president also eased fears that recent bouts of stronger inflation would hinder the recovery. The Consumer Price Index - a popular gauge of broad inflation - rose 0.6% in May, beating the median estimate of a 0.4% gain. The reading marked the fastest rate of price growth since 2009, but Biden assured the overshoot would soon fade.

"The overwhelming consensus is it's going to pop up a little bit and then come back down," he said.

The president's comments were made during a press conference focused on the $1 trillion bipartisan deal for infrastructure spending that Biden had thrown his support behind earlier on Thursday. The plan includes funding for physical infrastructure like roads and bridges, as well as improved broadband access and public transit projects.

The package represents just half of the White House's economic plan, Biden said during the afternoon press conference. The other portion will focus on improving childcare, education, and clean energy projects. Both proposals will move through Congress "in tandem" and represent Biden's next steps for building a stronger economy.

"If it turns out that what I've done so far - what we've done so far - is a mistake, it's going to show," the president said. "If that happens, my policies didn't make a lot of sense. But I'm counting on it not."
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