The basis of “American Dream” macroeconomics theory is this: when workers are scarce, wages rise, and the supply of workers increase. This is the way it should work and most of us have been told it does.

But that’s the lie.

In reality, what happens is that workplaces set their payroll budgets months ahead of time, get anchored to a price, and incentivize mid-level managers to find workers at those wages, no matter what. Those mid-level managers exert more and more effort to find worse and worse employees until some other problem reduces demand or increases the supply of workers. Then, next year, because it worked last year, mid-level managers are incentivized to keep payroll level. If it’s a good year and there’s revenue to spend, it gets spent on more staff, not better pay for the same staff.

To understand why this is a problem, you need to understand “Elasticity”-the amount of change a party will endure before changing behavior. You know it best in regards to price: how much can gas go up before you drive less? That decision reflects your price elasticity in regards to gas. If you’re going to buy, in the same amount, no matter the price, you are very elastic. If you start cutting back as soon as gas rises a few cents, you are very inelastic.

I can feel your eyes glazing over as my 4th graders do in group dynamics when I start talking about effective communication, but let me explain how this applies to camp counselors and male staff specifically: There is also wage elasticity, and men are (in general) far less elastic about the jobs they’ll take.

(I’d like to leave the subject of the wage gap to longer and better articles, as much as I can. It is a thing and it is a problem, and this is one of the effects, but I don’t want to get away from my point. Men have more and better choices in the American economy, and that’s wrong. )

Men between 18 and 22 have a lot of options for summer jobs that are less open to women- basically any outdoor labor job, among others. Women are also more likely to take a job despite low pay. Women are also directed towards jobs in childcare, so it’s natural that they are more motivated to find a job in camping.

That motivation makes women more elastic than men- willing to accept more problems, lower pay, harder work, etc, and still take the job. I’m certainly not advocating that men should be paid differently than women in camping. I’m pointing to your struggles to find male counselors as a symptom, a tell-tale about the problem.

Why is it hard to find male counselors?

Because your camp doesn’t pay counselors enough.

You just don’t.

The time has come, with low unemployment and years of no wage growth in camping, that elasticity has stretched to its breaking point. It’s no longer worth it.