Pittsburgh ice cream shop raises salaries, has more than 1,000 applicants

PITTSBURGH — It’s no secret businesses are struggling to find employees right now, but a local ice cream shop made a big change when it comes to paying employees. Since then, they’ve seen more than one thousand applicants.

Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor in the strip is now paying their employees $15 an hour after they were unable to find staff for the business. After advertising the bump in wages, the number of applicants skyrocketed.

“We advertised it and overnight, my emails were through the roof. A lot of emails. It was over 1,000 applicants,” general manager Maya Johnson said. “People were not showing up to their interviews. We really needed to make that boost for the summertime.”

State officials said there are no plans to opt out of the extra $300 federal payments with the unemployment system. Neighboring states West Virginia and Ohio are doing that.

Carlton Restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh to close after nearly 40 years

Cox Media Group