Lifeguard shortages leave pools closed, swimmers unprotected - L.A. lifeguard makes $500k a year

[OfTheCross]

In that teacher thread someone mentioned a lifeguard in LA made $250k w/ overtime....

Lifeguard shortages leave pools closed, swimmers unprotected - Poynter

Plus, continued chlorine shortages will delay other pool openings, home prices rose 20.6% in March compared to a year ago, and more.

www.poynter.org

Safety experts say a big national shortage of lifeguards could have deadly consequences this summer. The American Lifeguard Association says up to half of all pools in the country need lifeguards.

CNN reports:

Officials in Austin say the city will have fewer than of its pools open by early June. The city has been able to hire just over 30% of the 750 lifeguards required to operate all the pools, according to a news release.
Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County is keeping 10 pools closed for now, having hired about 56 lifeguards of the 300 they would need. Roughly half an hour away, Waukesha County leaders announced last week all of its park system beaches operate under Swim At Your Own Risk rules, and will not have lifeguards “due to the labor shortage.”

There are lots of reasons for the shortage. The pandemic shut down training classes for a couple of years. Young people are not as interested in lifeguarding as they used to be. Other jobs now pay more. CNN found that city after city has raised their lifeguards’ pay, and some added some sweeteners to attract applicants:

Phoenix, Arizona, officials announced earlier this year they’re offering a $2,500 bonus incentive for lifeguards, partly as a reimbursement for training costs. The base hourly wage there is roughly $14.02, officials said in a March news release. In Texas, Austin officials upped their pay to ranges of $16 to $19 an hour, and added roughly $1,250 in bonuses, along with paid sick leave and a free bus pass.
Austin had no trouble recruiting before Covid-19, hiring more lifeguards in 2019 than any other year, according to Jodi Jay, assistant director for the city’s Parks and Recreation department. But the pandemic “stopped us in our tracks,” forcing a training and hiring freeze which lasted for more than a year and the effects of which still linger, Jay said.

In Cincinnati, WXIX-TV reports:

Due to some staffing issues, Cincinnati’s Recreation Commission announced that only eight of the city’s 23 pools will open this season — which has some in the community unhappy.
“I feel pretty bad because it’s going to be a hot summer and these kids need something to do besides being in the house on these phones all the time,” Walnut Hills resident Kineshia Miles said.
The director of the Cincinnati Recreation Commission said as of now only eight of the 23 pools across 52 communities will open due to a shortage of lifeguards.
“We started really recruiting aggressively six… seven months ago. This has to be in 2021 as early as October and November and we have just not seen the number of returning pool lifeguards first and foremost and we have not been able to pick up new lifeguards,” Daniel Betts said.

Chlorine shortage will delay other pool openings​

If some pools stay closed because they can’t find enough lifeguards, perhaps it will ease the two-year shortage of chlorine. During the pandemic, more people used backyard pools. That, and a factory fire, hurt supply. WMAQ-TV reports:

After the worst chlorine shortage on record last year, many pool supply stores are still implementing quantity restrictions on customers to manage the ongoing crisis.
“It was a struggle to get chlorine last year,” said Bob Jones, president at American Sale. “We sold as much as we sell in the entire summer season in two weeks last year.”
Two major factors are leading to the shortage. High demand from a pandemic swimming pool boom and a major chemical plant fire in Louisiana that devastated production capacity.
“It will definitely last all through 2022, but by Jan. 2023, is when the plant is supposed to be back up and running,” said Jones.

Fox 59 in Indianapolis reports:

One of the reasons for the chlorine shortage is an increase in demand. Construction of new pools in 2020 went up nearly 25 percent.

There are reports of labor shortages for pool maintenance services, too.

 

[OfTheCross]

Top-Paid LA Lifeguards Earned Up To $510,283 In 2021

Baywatch needs to go on pay watch!

openthebooks.substack.com