Legislators discuss labor shortage during forum

FAIRFIELD – How does Iowa encourage people to do the jobs that are going undone?

That was one of the major themes of the legislative briefing Saturday morning at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center. The event, hosted by the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce, featured local state legislators responding to questions from the audience. Several questions revolved around the lack of workers in Iowa and how to address the problem, with topics ranging from unemployment benefit reform, the minimum wage, business regulations and getting veterans back to work.

Workforce

Resident Ed Hipp asked the legislators what they believed was causing the labor shortage, and told an anecdote about a conversation he had with a woman who said she could make more money on unemployment insurance than on working.

Rep. Joe Mitchell (R-Mt. Pleasant) said that the federal government mandating vaccines for health care workers was not helping the labor shortage. He also pointed a finger at the state’s 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. He suggested the state could do more to attract people from outside the area, such as Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.

In addition to his job on Capitol Hill, Sen. Adrian Dickey (R-Packwood) is the president of Dickey Transport in Packwood. He talked about how his own company has struggled to find truckers, which he attributed to federal handouts leading to a disincentive to work. To fill open positions, his company increased wages 20-25 percent last summer, but even that has not been enough. He said he’s hired 25 drivers from South Africa, who can speak English and who have a clean driving record, because workers are in such short supply.

Rep. Jeff Shipley (R-Birmingham) said the country is facing a demographic problem where couples are having fewer children than before. Moreover, he said children are being told they have to attend college instead of enrolling at a trade school, leading to a shortage of skilled tradesmen.

Sen. Jeff Reichman (R-Mt. Pleasant) was invited to Saturday morning’s forum but did not attend.

Resident Tracy Diehl asked the legislators why the federal government has made it more difficult to obtain a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in light of the shortage of truckers. She also asked why so few high school students are willing to take part-time jobs, even though they pay as much as $12 an hour.

“Twelve dollars an hour in high school is amazing,” Diehl said. “Why are kids not filling these jobs?”

Dickey said the new requirements to get a CDL were passed years ago (in 2012), but their implementation was delayed until 2021 when the Biden Administration chose not to delay them further. He said he’s working on a bill to create an Iowa-only CDL that would exempt Iowa truckers from the requirement.

Regarding the workforce, Dickey did not address the issue of high-schoolers working specifically, but did talk about a bill he has proposed to reform the state’s unemployment compensation. He said the unemployment compensation system has been around so long it was difficult to find out when it started exactly, though he thinks it dates to the farm crisis in the 1980s. He said unemployment benefits should help people down on their luck, but people shouldn’t think of them as replacing a job.

“That’s not fair to the people who are paying for those checks,” he said.

Iowans can receive unemployment benefits for up to 26 weeks, and during that time they must report two job searches per week. Dickey said there was no rhyme or reason that two job searches was chosen, and that his bill would tie the number of job searches required to the number of jobs available. For instance, if there were between 60,000-70,000 jobs available in Iowa, a person would need to report six job searches, and if there were between 50,000-60,000 jobs, they would need to report five job searches.

Mitchell responded to Diehl’s question about high-schoolers working by saying that it all starts with parents. His parents told him when he was growing up that if he wasn’t in sports, he had to work. His first job was at his parents’ manufacturing plant in Wayland, MD Orthopaedics. As he gained work experience, he moved on to higher paying jobs at other locations.

Resident Margaret Dwyer told the legislators she was surprised that, during their comments on the labor shortage, they never mentioned the minimum wage, which in Iowa is $7.25 per hour, the same as the federal minimum wage.

“This is not a livable wage,” Dwyer said, adding that increasing the minimum wage could attract more people to work in the state.

Dickey said he did not think the minimum wage was related to the current labor shortage because the prevailing market wage is so much higher. Mitchell concurred, saying businesses had trouble filling positions paying double the minimum wage.

“If you know someone making under $15 an hour, let me know and I’ll find them a job paying over $15,” Mitchell said.

Resident Bob Waugh is Department Commander of the American Legion of Iowa and resides in Libertyville. He spoke about the program Home Base Iowa, which helps veterans and their spouses find careers after they’ve left the military. He said the biggest problem the organization faces is a lack of funds, which it runs out of after the first two months of the year, meaning those veterans who don’t receive help have to wait at least 10 months to get it.

Dickey said he wanted to talk to Waugh after the forum. Dickey has drafted a bill designed to attract workers from out of state, and he said he’d love to include veterans in it.

Education

The legislators had a tense exchange with resident John McKerley, a member of the Fairfield Community School District Board of Directors. McKerley said schools “desperately need” more than the 2 percent allowable growth to their budgets the state Legislature has allocated for them this year. He said the three regent universities need funding, too.

Mitchell said he considers himself a strong supporter of public schools, and told McKerley the Legislature is giving schools $150 million in new money this year.

“Our budget is geared toward education,” Mitchell said. “And the University of Iowa has the lowest tuition of any school in the Big 10.”

Dickey chimed in, saying that half of the state’s budget goes toward education, and that as the federal government has given more money to schools, the schools are trying to figure out how to spend it.

McKerley accused the legislators of “stealing that money from other institutions.”

“I was elected to defend public education. I’m trying to do my job because you’re not [doing yours],” McKerley said. “I’m tired of the lies about the total amount of funding is increasing.”

“No one is lying to you,” replied Shipley. “We’ve given $1 billion to public education the last 10 years. If your funding is at an all-time high and you’re in crisis, then you are the problem.”

Shipley said that if schools wanted more funding, they should follow state law. He said there were examples where an eighth grade teacher in Fairfield was teaching critical race theory even though that violated state law, and that the Fairfield Community School District re-imposed a mask mandate after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds had banned such mandates.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com