Why are salaries so low in Austin? (Houston, San Antonio: homes, to buy)

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by riaelise

With all due respect trainwreck, I would "take them" but I'm not selfish. My husbands family is based here and they're an invaluable support system. In addition I have seniority in my office which I don't intend to give up. But that doesn't mean I can't wonder what is so special about Austin that justifies pay being lower than other cities.

I think it is very industry specific. Legal and medical definitely pay less here. My spouse makes exactly the same here as he would in California.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by riaelise

With all due respect trainwreck, I would "take them" but I'm not selfish. My husbands family is based here and they're an invaluable support system. In addition I have seniority in my office which I don't intend to give up. But that doesn't mean I can't wonder what is so special about Austin that justifies pay being lower than other cities.

External factors such as yours exist in every city, so while they do explain possible salary suppression in some cases, similar factors would statistically exist in other cities as well. While you might be willing to take a lower salary here for your position, the random person without such factors would not - at least not for those reasons.

We hire in three cities in Texas and two east coast cities. I am not involved in the intimate details of hiring and pay, but the one consistent fact for many years is that Houston staff generally requires hiring salary offers. One of the reasons is that Houston has many more companies similar to us that we have to compete with. The other is that people make it clear that they are willing to take lower pay to work in Austin. I have no idea on how the pay compares to the east coast (the offices are in lower cost areas) and experience can vary so much, it would be hard to compare directly anyway.

[Denver303TJC]

Originally Posted by timtemtym

I ran into that with teaching in Austin. I spent three years slumming it to get by. It is one of the lowest paying urban district in Texas. The reason? There is a line of people waiting to teach there. I'm sure it applies to other fields. People are drawn to Houston for the jobs and Austin for the lifestyle. I ended up in Los Angeles and my standard of living (even factoring in the high cost of living) is way better.

Agreed! I met people who said people who have their MAs in Education mostly work for the state, since so many people now are wanting to teach in Austin (and do other jobs, too). Last year I got a contract job for $15 per hour with Apple (spits on floor), and they hired people with BAs and high school degrees for that temp position. The main point though, is that many people felt that, for Austin, $15 per hour was a pretty dang good hourly wage. A lot of people keep moving here, which leads to more restaurants and stores and the like, but I'm not sure how many decent paying jobs it creates. Austin is a fun city to live in, but my wife and I are planning on moving to Houston in January, when our lease ends (but also dependent on how early I could start teaching in Houston). Then (after I get certified), I plan on teaching for a couple years and then going back to school to get my MA in School Counseling. I noticed that as an "entry-level teacher" in Houston and DFW, $50k per year is doable. Making $50k in Austin means you need to be in a specialized field, as far as I know.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by riaelise

With all due respect trainwreck, I would "take them" but I'm not selfish. My husbands family is based here and they're an invaluable support system. In addition I have seniority in my office which I don't intend to give up. But that doesn't mean I can't wonder what is so special about Austin that justifies pay being lower than other cities.

Whatever it is, it's been going on at least since I first came to Austin in 1969. It was well known then that if you wanted to make money, you lived in Dallas or Houston. People were known to go work in those cities and save up enough money to be able to come back to Austin and work for less here. We also (really!) had more bartenders with law degrees and more attorneys per capita than anywhere else in the country, because people would come to school here, go to law school, and then refuse to leave. This isn't a new development.

[Aquitaine]

But that doesn't mean I can't wonder what is so special about Austin that justifies pay being lower than other cities.

You answered your own question in your post!

The "special" thing about Austin that "justifies" lower salaries is that you'd rather be paid $10k less and live here than $10k more to leave. Multiply by several hundred thousand and there is your workforce. I wouldn't move to Dallas or Houston for $10k a year.

[ashbeeigh]

Im making 10k more here than I was in San Antonio. If you want to talk low salaries talk about SA. I'm making it here on this salary and made it there as well. It's the cost of living here that is outrageous.

[Nacho_Friend]

I've found this the easiest place to compare salaries. I chose marketing manager but anything can be searched on:

Marketing manager Salary in Dallas, TX, Houston, TX, Austin, TX, and San Antonio, TX | Indeed.com

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

I think it is very industry specific. Legal and medical definitely pay less here. My spouse makes exactly the same here as he would in California.

That's true. I attribute that to the small pond, lots of fish scenario. There isn't a significant national/international legal presence here, unlike Houston for example.

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

External factors such as yours exist in every city, so while they do explain possible salary suppression in some cases, similar factors would statistically exist in other cities as well. While you might be willing to take a lower salary here for your position, the random person without such factors would not - at least not for those reasons.

We hire in three cities in Texas and two east coast cities. I am not involved in the intimate details of hiring and pay, but the one consistent fact for many years is that Houston staff generally requires hiring salary offers. One of the reasons is that Houston has many more companies similar to us that we have to compete with. The other is that people make it clear that they are willing to take lower pay to work in Austin. I have no idea on how the pay compares to the east coast (the offices are in lower cost areas) and experience can vary so much, it would be hard to compare directly anyway.

This actually explains the pay discrepancy somewhat. In my industry, law, there are a LOT of Global Law firms in Houston, therefore there is a competition for talent. In NYC, for example, I could find another job within hours of leaving my first job..the industry is that white hot. I'm sure it would be that way in Houston. I'm not quite getting the second bolded statement, hence my post. What is it about Austin that people are willing to take lower pay?

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Whatever it is, it's been going on at least since I first came to Austin in 1969. It was well known then that if you wanted to make money, you lived in Dallas or Houston. People were known to go work in those cities and save up enough money to be able to come back to Austin and work for less here. We also (really!) had more bartenders with law degrees and more attorneys per capita than anywhere else in the country, because people would come to school here, go to law school, and then refuse to leave. This isn't a new development.

Nope, never said it's a new development. My question still remains - why?

Originally Posted by Aquitaine

You answered your own question in your post!

The "special" thing about Austin that "justifies" lower salaries is that you'd rather be paid $10k less and live here than $10k more to leave. Multiply by several hundred thousand and there is your workforce. I wouldn't move to Dallas or Houston for $10k a year.

What's wrong with Dallas or Houston? Both are great cities in their own right, just too big for my taste. Maybe it's a pride thing but I don't particularly like making 10k less than my colleagues in Houston doing the same exact job and working for the same, exact company.

Originally Posted by Nacho_Friend

I've found this the easiest place to compare salaries. I chose marketing manager but anything can be searched on:

Marketing manager Salary in Dallas, TX, Houston, TX, Austin, TX, and San Antonio, TX | Indeed.com

Ugh. My husband would be making far more in Houston. So using hypothetical numbers here, our income would be over $200k if we relocated to Houston.


I think the issue is as Asbeeigh said, the cost of living here is higher so when you combine that with the lower salaries, it bites. I'm not doing badly here and compared to where I moved from I'm living quite well but like I said before, it bites that I am making less than my Houston and Dallas colleagues.

[Trainwreck20]

Yes, I also am not quite sure why people seem to prefer Austin so much over Houston. Houston is actually my '2nd city' in Texas over Austin; however, my roots and family are so connected here that there is no way I am going to Houston now - never mind that I would make the same money unless I changed companies .

Not everyone prefers Austin, we have had a couple of transfers to Houston (and people hired in Houston that did not want to come to Austin) over the years, but those are mainly family reasons. But it remains a fact that hires from outside the immediate area (Texas) seem to much prefer Austin. The $10k by itself is not significant - the percent difference is the more critical part, probably. We probably offer about 5% more in Houston, I would think? Hard to tell, since we tend to end up getting younger applicants and hiring younger people in Houston.

I could increase my pay by a very significant amount even staying here in Austin, but choose not to because I really like where I am working, who I am working with, and the fact that we retain quite a bit of old-Austin 'culture' (casual atmosphere, low-pressure environment, work to live not vice versa). We draw a certain personality type that is willing to trade the extra money for less work hours.

[Aquitaine]

What's wrong with Dallas or Houston? Both are great cities in their own right, just too big for my taste. Maybe it's a pride thing but I don't particularly like making 10k less than my colleagues in Houston doing the same exact job and working for the same, exact company.

Nothing at all is wrong with them! But the market there is clearly such that, either due to increased competition for jobs or the type of labor supply available, they've got to pay somebody $10k more in (whatever field) to fill the spot. We're not talking about the difference between a terrible town and a great one; we're talking about a significant but not overwhelming salary discrepancy in certain sectors. It's clearly not all sectors.

My wife is a midlevel medical practicioner and she earns less in Austin than she would most anywhere else in Texas. This is with a large and growing medical work force in Austin. The reason is simple: everybody wants to be here, so employers have their pick.

This is also true to some extent in Dallas or Houston, but in her specific line of work, it's a little less true - and if she were willing to go to El Paso or Paris, TX she could make quite a lot more. Supply and demand.