The New York Times notes that there is a labor shortage in Iowa, and says that, Remedies are not simple. Companies want to be in Iowa because wages are lower than elsewhere in the nation or region, except South Dakota. But low wages also drive young college graduates out of the state, especially as student debt loads have risen, and they discourage workers from other states from moving to Iowa.”

The remedy is tough to find, and in the very next sentences the source of the problem is found: there is a worker shortage in Iowa because wages are too low.

Employers are subject to the same laws of supply and demand as everywhere else.

If they want wages to be more competitive, then they need to tighten up their minimum wage laws ($300K turnover and 90 days without a minimum wage don’t help), and revoke the state’s right to work laws so that unions can organize more efficiently.

H/T Dean Baker‘s Beat the Press.