I think it’s accurate for late-2021

People used the pandemic to up-skill, or otherwise find a better job, so when things started re-opening in 2021, most retail and service industry places had a very hard time filling roles

Story time

In 2019, just before the pandemic, a friend of mine worked at a gas station for years as the assistant manager. He loved it. Some responsibility without having all the responsibility. Lots of overtime, enough money to live off in a LCOL area. He was making something like $14.75 an hour. The store manager bumped him up to $15.75/hour, since he was doing the work of two people, showed up on time and sober, and was generally a much better employee than a gas station has any right to have

After he had already gotten his raise, corporate went back to his manager and said no (a decision by the current head of the company). Corporate rolled back the pay increase. According to them, he was already the highest paid assistant manager in the chain (~20 stores in the midwest). They wouldn’t approve the pay increase, even though employee pay is generally at the discretion of the store manager

He started looking for a new job the next day. COVID happened shortly after that and upended the job market. He got a job as the equivalent to an assistant manager at a warehouse making $27.00/hour, with much better hours (generally 8:30-5:00), and better benefits. The gas station had to hire 2 assistant managers to replace him. They also started at $16.00, even more than the raise that corporate had rolled back