Letter: No wonder we’ve got high employee turnover

I once had a customer come into my store saying he was a second homeowner here in Vail. He followed that by saying, “Oh, I rent it out though. It’s crazy, you can charge really high prices for rent and people will pay it!” Therein lies the problem. You’ve got a young workforce that wants to be here but can’t afford it due to opportunistic landlords. Considering that, when adjusted for inflation, lower-line employees are making less than what people would make 30, 40 years ago for the same work.

Meanwhile, the cost of living, housing, are all going up while wages are stagnating. To be honest, any job that offers less than 16$ an hour is asking for the high turnover. I’m lucky, I live in a place that’s still affordable, but the moment I move out I’m probably going to move out of the valley. Come wintertime we’ll see how many lifts will actually turn on due to lack of staffing. Chair 26 didn’t open until December. 

Joe Edwards

EagleVail