That is why, I am the only one in my area, (building engineer) at Hospice that puts in 10/20/30 hours a week in overtime...everyone else either doesn't want it or they are always taking time off.

Sure, after some point, I am only feeding the "Beast" (our expression for government) but I am only making a little more than half the income I once earned when working for DeWalt Power Tools, which ended in 09.
In every field I ever worked...there are just no jobs over 6 figures anymore.

I make more than twice my base 40 hour annual exclusively due to overtime.
There are many others in my company who do their very best to avoid working more than 20 hours a week.
I am constantly appalled by the work ethic of those around me.

The time and a half draw dates from the pre-credit card era. Back when all purchases were in cash, having extra money was more important than it is today, even if it meant less time for rest and family activities. Now that people can pay with money they don't yet have, it's harder to entice them to sacrifice their personal time over the holidays

I wouldn't immediately dog them out, most retail workers are younger in the career, and being younger often have young kids - in most cities in America, daycare is a real problem and the cost of a few extra hours of it beyond the contract can be much, much higher than the time & a half pay.

No idea of the specific cases, but I would speculate that is a common problem.

The government takes too much of their money. That's certainly one facet worth looking at. How will their life improve with another $200 in the bank? It's certainly different than working for yourself...

Happy holidays to you and Your family! I feel your sadness , I also know that family will give you great joy in the coming month.

What you describe reminds me of Atlas Shrugged.
As the story unfolded it was more and more difficult for the producers to find quality employees to get the job done. When a conscious
Worker became involved they shined like a bright star and even were invited to the gulch.
I have never had an hourly wage or a salary. I work 2 jobs one that I love and the other pays the
Bills I never consider a starting or ending to the day, week or month for that matter. I am not a workaholic but when I can make some dough that is my focus.
I basically fit my life in between my work and sleep. Just like most of the gulchers I suspect.
Zayn blyendik ir ale.

This is what happens when the life of everyone is good enough, and people don't aspire to something more. Particularly if minimum wage is high enough. The result is mass apathy and comfort...until there is a time of need, or another thing "everybody" (entitled) should have.

Was this before - or after - the wide availability of credit cards in the US?

Back in the day (oh gawd I sound old) there were basically NO SALES in January and February of each year in most stores. Why? Because everyone had spent every penny they had on Christmas.

Now you can hardly tell the difference between December and February, because if you don't have the money to pay for it now.....just charge it!

The lack of an actual CASH constraint on families these days is (at least part of) why they'd rather be out partying. Don't have the money? No biggie. Don't work harder or longer....just charge it.

I think that workers today feel that the amount of money they are paid is a pittance compared with their expenses. I cant really argue with them. Inflation has resulted in the dollar being worth a LOT LESS than it was in the past. Just look at the prices of things that are made here in the USA (not gotten from cheap labor in china). A suburban SUV goes for over $70,000 now.
If someone is making $10 an hour, working OT gets them an additional $5 of which they get to keep maybe $3. That $3 might get you a value meal at burger king if you are lucky. There probably isnt anything at Costco that the $3 would buy. So, why work?

Or they are afraid of losing their ObamaCare subsidies

The average worker in the USA is
A. Bone lazy and B. has been inculcated with the Idea that they can never get ahead...so why try!

Not the go-getter attitude of previous generations but the best kind of attitude for big government controlled drones.

Another factor here is the progressive nature of the tax system, the worker perceives that the more he works the more his taxes are. this is a clear damper on the notion of working extra. At the level of a store employee, this is not so much the case, but they think that this is the case. Welfare benefits are subject to this same curse, don't do too well or you will loose your benefits.

When I got out of college in 1964, I was employed by an engineering and construction company. My father was in management for a steel company and worked long hours so I was surprised that salaried engineers on projects were paid time and a half. It seemed like we were "laborers" but it made sense because each project was unique and under extreme time pressure. If you are designing a control system for a manufacturing process it is unlikely that the "second shift" can come in and pick up where you left off when the bell rang at 5:00. Since the process knowledge plus the electronic expertise was relatively scarce it was wise to pay us to stay later. We also went into the field on startups so there was a lot of extra hours as a project was coming on line. We were invested in the success and time line of projects and would probably put in more hours just out of a sense of duty.

My salary was just over $7K but I made $13K due to the OT. In 1964 you could do a lot with that and since we were newlyweds, we made a down payment on a house and bought a lot of furniture. I guess that if your people don't want any extra money, you must be paying them too much for their 40 hours.

People think they are entitled.

Years ago I wrote a point of sale system for a friend's restaurant. At the time the hardware was a big cost, but today any restaurant that wanted to do so could let diners place their orders themselves easily, (as long as children or practical jokers are kept in check.) It's as easy to do as scanning items at the self checkout at Kroger or Wal-mart. Yes, there would be a small minority who needed help with anything technical but ticking off boxes on a screen is easier than using a VCR (Remember VCR's?) and the order prints immediately in the kitchen.

It saddens me that people lack the drive to do any minimal thing beyond what is required of them. I used to be a roofing contractor and developed a system of roofing that sped up the process. Young men that I hired were trained then paid by the square (amount of work completed) not hourly. This was 30 years ago and young men fresh out of high school were earning $25 ($100 an hour now) and hour. They were paid bonuses based on amount of work completed in a day. They realized the value of staying a little later on a job so we would not have to return to complete it the next day then spend unpaid time moving to another. They were always anxious to work and I sometimes sent them home early to have time to do other things of interest.
One day they came to me and said they wanted to work for an hourly wage of $25 and get overtime if they worked after hours (I pointed out that the bonuses achieved by extra production was overtime) and be able to take breaks. They complained the work was difficult (I was working on the roof with them) and sometimes they wanted to take breaks. I told them to take breaks if they were tired. I wanted them to rest. They pointed out that if they took breaks they were no longer earning money! No kidding! Neither was I! I told them that if they were paid by the hour I was cutting their wage to $9 per hour because I knew their productivity would drop. They chose to continue because they liked the pay but eventually the state was called in, I was told I was being unfair and I closed my business. They no longer made $25 an hour, went to work for other contractors earning $7-$8.

I always find it interesting to point out to people how much the government takes in Social Security and FICA - which they will never see again. The other thing they don't see is the unemployment insurance that gets tacked on to the employer's side of things. One of the things I've always heard is that if people had to actually pay those things on their tax returns every year, those programs would be gone in a heartbeat at the next election.