In my case, it’s not because of a shortage of workers but rather because they want to motivate their workers to stay with the company as long as possible.
My previous job had a critical shortage of janitors to the point where right on the first day I was immediately asked to not only work as the only janitor in two buildings (okay, 2 building wings of the same school) during the shift I signed up for, but to also work in another school in the same system during another shift…and the pay was still $16/hour… (“Oh, but you’re getting overtime pay” was the only solace they could give me).
So fuckin’ glad I left that job. Now I work in a very low-stress job that involves watering and taking care of plants~ Even before the raise, I was already motivated to stay in this job for as long as possible; it’s done wonders for my mental health probably because taking care of plants involves some level of zen and/or maybe the extra sunlight exposure was what I needed (I work in a mall so it’s not direct sunlight…yes, there’s lot of plants in the mall I work at).