37° CLOUDY, Shoals wage growth slowest in country
Last Modified: Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 11:34 p.m.
Wage growth in the Shoals stagnated in 2007 at .1 percent, putting the area atop the list of slowest wage-growth areas in the country, according to a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Fastest
- College Station-Bryan, Texas, 9.5 percent
- Gulfport-Boloxi, Miss., 7.2 percent
- New Orleans-Metarie-Kenner, La., 6.8 percent
- Redding, Calif., 5.9 percent
- Merced, Calif., 5.7 percent
Slowest - Florence-Muscle Shoals, Ala., 0.1 percent
- Ocala, Fla., 0.9 percent
- Alexandria, La., 0.9 percent
- Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, Mich., 1 percent
- Springfield, Ill., 1.1 percent
Source: careerbuilder.com
The annual salary for full-time employees also was largely unchanged from 2006 to 2007. In 2007, it was $29,940, up slightly from $29,050, the rate in 2006. Data also revealed salaries in the Shoals to be the lowest among all the metropolitan areas in the state, including Gadsden, Auburn-Opelika and Anniston-Oxford.
Factoring in inflation and cost-of-living increases for basic items, including food, many Shoals workers saw the purchase power of their paychecks diminish.
Steve Rondone, spokesman for the BLS regional office in Atlanta, said the stagnation is the result of the Shoals' dominant service economy, one that depends on tourist dollars to support hotels, restaurants and retail establishments.
"With a blended employment base, you have higher salaries," Rondone said. "Hotels and restaurants have lower hourly wages in comparison to a distribution factory or manufacturing facility."
Service jobs, which include waiters, hotel housekeepers and clothing store managers, often don't provide employees with raises that include cost-of-living increases or factor in inflation, Rondone said.
"If you're counting on tourism to support your local economy now, with the economic downturn we're in and with the higher gas prices, it could mean that people might be less likely to spend their disposable income on weekend excursions," he said. "Florence and the surrounding area could feel the negative impact of that."
The Shoals is home to many festivals that attract tourists throughout the year, including the Helen Keller Festival, the W.C. Handy Festival and annual Trail of Tears motorcycle ride, which concludes today. Tourists who attend these events support the local economy by staying in local hotels, eating in restaurants and shopping in stores.
Shifting away from a single economic focus to include other business and industry is a way to boost these numbers in the future, Rondone said.
He suggests diversifying the local economy to include more manufacturing, business, technology and construction jobs, areas that can not only raise the hourly wage but also the annual salaries of employees.
Jim Couch, local economist and University of North Alabama professor, believes the area has already taken some of the first steps in that direction.
"The railcar plant is an exciting new employer that should exert an upward influence on wages," he said. "We should target white-collar employers as well as firms in the technology sector."
The railcar plant, National Alabama, is still in the construction phase, and the first 600 employees - mostly skilled welders - are expected to be hired in January at a wage of $14 an hour. It could take several months, however, for these manufacturing jobs to have an impact on the local economy.
Historically, Couch said wages in Colbert and Lauderdale counties have been flat, lagging behind the state average for more than 30 years.
As a result, he said, "Shoals residents, on average, enjoy a lower standard of living than their neighbors in the rest of the state."
And without raises to accommodate the higher costs of living, Couch said,
"The real wages - the purchasing power of an individual's income - declines, and the individual is worse off."
Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@TimesDaily.com.
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Comments
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September 21, 2008 8:27:38 am
RE: Link
IMHO
I have been working at the same job in the shoals area for 17 years and due to family reasons I can't move for another 7 to 8 years. I have a degree as well as many professional certifications. Never had any complaints from any customers in fact have been told by many if I ever left they would be forced to change to a different company. I have not had a raise since 1999 (remember the Y2K technology scare). Due to my morals I would never resort to theft to supplement my income. I do and continue to ask the technicians that come to do work at my house a few questions. How long have you been working at your company, when was the last time you had a raise and if their company offers bonuses for a well preformed task. If you are allowing contract technicians to work at your home or business that live below the poverty level you are setting yourself up for shotty work and possible theft.
If you pay your employees below the poverty level you are setting yourself up for all the things that accompany a unhappy employee.
If your business is not capable of paying the wages then you need to go out of business. You are going to permanently destroy your reputation and you need to work for someone for a while eat ramen noodles and punch a time clock (I'm guessing for the first time in your life)
September 21, 2008 11:08:23 am
Problem; too few (un)skilled jobs, too many (un)skilled workers.
Your solution; fewer (un)skilled jobs?
The skilled unskilled part works either way but you seem to be trying to imply something unique about "technicians" "degrees" and "professional certifications".
September 21, 2008 5:07:59 pm
Think of it...of all the communities in the U.S. of A. We, here in the Shoals, have the distinction of being absolutely dead last in wage growth. Hey...lets re-elect all of the incumbents for yet another term.
September 21, 2008 5:36:16 pm
once again, daybeggar has called it.
September 22, 2008 1:46:33 pm
he was the only feesable choice. Scott has proved it since the election.
September 22, 2008 2:54:29 pm
A couple of questions, alabamadad. Have you asked for a raise? Does your employer provide health insurance? Have you ever owned a business?
September 22, 2008 4:37:41 pm
wow, I guess I stepped on a few toes. That was not my intention I was just venting.
"Your solution; fewer (un)skilled jobs?"
no, the jobs will always be there I'm just recommending new management.
"A couple of questions, alabamadad. Have you asked for a raise?" Does your employer provide health insurance? Have you ever owned a business?
I have never asked for a raise and I never will. If my employer doesn't know that I need a raise, me telling him would make no difference.
"Does your employer provide health insurance?"
when I started working there my part of Family health insurance was around $12 or $13 a week and it was the best insurance I have ever had. Through the years the price has went up and the benefits down now if you combine health and dental its about $65 a week and if you get sick you hope you can get a loan for all the expenses. A trip to the emergency room has a $300 co pay and the way ECM/Shoals/Keller do their billing (one bill for doctor +1 bill for hosp) you end up paying $600 in co pay alone not to mention any x rays or test. So if that qualify as "providing" insurance then yes they do.
"Have you ever owned a business?"
Yes and no I do own a couple of businesses but they do not count because I'm the only employee they are used for private contracts. I have never owned a business that employed anyone other than myself. I have never known the feeling of someone depending on me to make payroll. I also have never known the feeling of rising to the top on the backs of others.
September 22, 2008 5:39:31 pm
Well , a couple of things come to mind for me.
Is the company you work for making money, most especilly are they making more money now than they did in 1999 (adjusted for inflation)
If they are, then you SHOULD ask for a raise , you are part of the reason for the success of the company, and you should share in more of their monetary rewards. If they are making money, your employer is lining his pockets at your expense.On the other hand, if the company is kinda stagnant, just hanging in there, no reason to ask.
I don't know what you do, but if your skills are in demand elsewhere, go out and find out what your piers are making, and offer that to the boss.
If the company is successful, and you don't ask for and get a raise, maybe you should start quietly looking elsewhere.
September 22, 2008 6:23:39 pm
Okay, you are complaining that you haven't gotten a raise, though you won't make the case for one with the owner. My suggestion to cure this is to make the case for a raise. The worst that can happen is that he says no.
Insurance is a funny thing. Somehow, employees seem to think that a business gets that for free. You tell me how much you pay. Do you know how much your employer pays? You've noted that it is costing you more (the limits you mention are pretty standard), what do you think it is costing your employer? I know that covering our employees costs us about twice what it did 5 years ago. I consider that a raise. Interesting about your business ownership. On the one hand you say you have never known the feeling of someone depending on you to make the payroll, then you turn it completely around and basically say the owner of the business is "rising on the backs of others." I've been both employee and employer, and very few employers "rise on the backs of their employees". Your employer may not dirty his hands with manual labor or whatever skill the company is providing, but I bet he started out doing it. I bet if he weren't doing what he does, there wouldn't be a job for you.
In a former life I was a CPA. When I worked in Memphis for one of the international firms the managing partner of our office probably only did about 30 minutes of accounting work in a day, wasn't his job anymore. He had other jobs, and while we grunts did the "work", what he was doing was work too, vital work, that provided us with our jobs. None of this is meant to bust your chops, and I only asked the questions I asked to get a better idea of where you are coming from. Excelman is right, if you are making a positive contribution to the growth of the company you should ask for a raise, or ask for bonuses based on productivity. If you feel you could do a better job than current management, why not go into business for yourself?
September 23, 2008 5:39:16 am
Since you mentioned y2k, I'm assuming that you work in IT. Is the that you haven't asked for a raise because you are actually making an exceptionally more than the family median in the area, or simply because you lack the stones to do so?
With the exception of last year, inflation has averaged around 2.5% over the past 10 years. I'm not saying to demand to be paid in accordance to inflation right now especially the way the economy is, but seriously you are making over 30% less than you were 10 years ago and a large part of that may just be your own fault.
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