As holiday shoppers and travelers struggle with severe shortages of retail and hospitality staff, parents are dealing with another shortage—a lack of men to portray Santa Claus. The “Santa Shortage” tells us a lot about the post-pandemic labor market but also illustrates how so-called “shortages” often reflect deeply embedded racial and gender divisions.
Let’s start with a basic economic proposition—supply and demand. The New York Times
NYT
With COVID, malls and stores often were shut down and in-person interactions fell sharply. But Emily Badger and Eve Washington in the Times say this year “seemingly everyone wants a piece of Santa” as malls lure shoppers back in-person to fight their online competition.
All this means big demand for Santa portrayers. Stephen Arnold, president of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas (IBRBS), says “desperation” is driving “increased demand.”
The IBRBS website wants more Santa portrayers. They provide Santa swag, entertainer’s liability insurance, and more soberingly, subsidized and discounted background checks (similar to what athletic coaches, Scout leaders, and others need.) Most employers require safety provisions because Santas work with children, and the insurance includes “molestation” coverage.
The Times estimates Santa pay trends rising “ around 12 percent from last year” (while drolly noting that “the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t track Santa as an occupation.”) That’s probably not adjusted for inflation, but still beats the 6.2% increase in median nominal wages for all workers.
We’ve grown accustomed to seeing Santa as a jolly, fat, bearded—and white—man. But driven both by the labor shortage and also by consumer demand led by Black households, more men of color are portraying Santa.
USA TODAY reports that Andre Parker, a Black former Marine who portrays “Santa Andre,” says “fewer than 3% of professional Santas are of ethnic origin.” You can now (occasionally) see Black Santas in Disney theme parks. Old Navy has an annual online bootcamp to train diverse Santas who then appear in their stores.
Not everyone is happy about diverse Santas. In 2013, then-Fox News personality Megyn Kelly cause a stir when she said it was a “verifiable fact” that Santa (and Jesus) were “white men.” (For what it’s worth, the original St. Nicholas was a third century C.E. Greek-born bishop, probably with “olive-toned” skin, and Jesus was a Palestinian Jew.). And some people have complained about an Oreo cookie ad featuring Black rapper and actor Wiz Khalifa as Santa.
There are more diverse Santas. In addition to Black Santas, we are seeing Asian-American Santas, Tex-Mex Santas (although many Latino traditions say holiday gifts come from the Three Kings who visited Jesus’ birth, not Santa), and even a gay Santa from the Norwegian postal service.
Solving a labor market shortage of Santas with more diversity is a good economic move. America’s white male population is a less reliable supply; these men are aging and their labor force participation is falling.
But there’s one source the market isn’t tapping—women, who make up almost half of the overall labor force. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reports women have made progress on the gender gap in some occupations (lawyers, doctors, postal workers) while others (teachers, cashiers, nurses) remain highly segregated by gender.
Why not a female Santa? At a minimum, female actors could play Santa like they portray men. Women have done it successfully in movies. And actor Anna Kendrick actually played a female Santa in the little-seen movie Noelle. But that one film aside, the generous and magical character always is portrayed as masculine.
Women often are confined to playing “Mrs. Claus” (who usually doesn’t have a first name), a homemaker who support her male husband in his work. (The IBRBS website allows you to apply as “Santa,” “Mrs. Claus,” or just “Wife.”)
Labor market shortages may break this persistent gender barrier. During World War II, women not only became taxi and truck drivers, pilots (although not in combat), famously riveters and machinists, and even Santas at a few department stores. Like other wartime gender occupational breakthroughs, these victories over sex discrimination dried up when men returned from the war.
Economists recognize racial and gender stereotypes are pervasive, pernicious, and deeply embedded. So it’s unlikely we’ll see many female “Santa Clauses” soon, even in the face of severe labor shortages. And as trivial as it may seem, the story of all-male Santas underscores how deeply embedded racial and gender stereotypes are in our economy and labor markets.