working for same company, relocating across usa. What is reasonable to ask for? (Portland: rent)

[worriedwife]

My husbands company would like to relocate him from Ohio to Oregon to help solve some problems in the Portland plant. We have school age children, one who will be a senior next yr. What is reasonable to ask for in compensation for uprooting the whole family? My salary which we need, will be lost with the move. Also, what is reasonable ( to ask) for moving expenses?

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by worriedwife

My husbands company would like to relocate him from Ohio to Oregon to help solve some problems in the Portland plant. We have school age children, one who will be a senior next yr. What is reasonable to ask for in compensation for uprooting the whole family? My salary which we need, will be lost with the move. Also, what is reasonable ( to ask) for moving expenses?

How's this: $150,000 per year and a $15,000 moving allowance.

Sorry, there's just no way to answer this without more information. Is he running a plant with 1500 employees or 15 employees? What is the business sector? Even if you provide more information, his job may be so specialized that the bunch of ya-hoos that follow these boards (me included) may not be able to give you a very accurate answer, if that's what you're looking for here.

My suggestion: Look at your combined incomes and the cost of living difference between where you live now and Portland. Start out by taking the combined income and adjusting it up or down (probably up) for COL in Portland (check out Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is against the tos ). If that seems like too much to ask for whittle it down but think about this: You guys might be in a good position for him to get a decent salary increase if he's needed to solve a problem at the plant.

Good luck.

[Nell Plotts]

As someone else mentioned much depends on the industry. My thoughts assume that this is an established med-large employer with decent HR practices:

There are cost of living calculators on line. Compare Portland to a community on Ohio that you think best represents your situation. If you don't know where to start try calling Realtors in your community and ask about the cost of homes (median, average, 75% mark) then call Realtors in your destination community and go through the same process. That should give you a benchmark for comparison. Do this even if you rent as the relationships should be similar. That is also good information for what this move will cost you in housing, a sum you could add to your moving cost.

Employers who transfer employees typically pay for a house hunting trip, realtor's fees for selling your home, moving expenses, temporary housing in the new community for a month or so while you settle on a house. Were I you I would rent for a year, home prices are not going up and you will have an opportunity to get to know the community.

There is no pay for messing up family life per se, however, if they want and need your husband at the new facility to solve a problem then he should negotiate a bonus or raise once the dust has settled.

My heart goes out to your eldest child, it is tough to move for your senior year. It is important that he have at least a month in his new school his Jr. year so that he can get plugged in to their social scene and sign up for activities. You might negotiate for a couple trips back to your present community for visits (perhaps as a part of business trips by your husband) so that he can see his friends.

[hamellr]

Or have your husband move out here, find a place to live, and let your kid graduate with his class.

[Nell Plotts]

Much depends on the student's social skills and academics. Were I they I would contact the person who will handle his admission into the high school, have available his current classes, grades and any early SATs or ACTs he has taken. Find out how easily he can slide into classes and activities. I would look for a high school that is similar to his current school culturally and academically. Find out if they are willing to find a 'buddy' for him to ease the transition.

There are some sports that are more popular in Ohio, in my observation, than here. Ice hockey comes to mind, there must be a team here but I haven't heard of it. Soccer is very popular here. The availability of club sports he enjoys may be an issue. That is why I think it is important that he make the move ASAP.

[worriedwife]

Wow...thank you all for your responses. My son is very shy....not a good thing. He is also very musically involved. I saw only ONE school ( in the vancouver district) with a marching band. We come from a school that has 200 kids in the MB and a very good music dept. He is also in the cleveland youth wind symphony through the cleve institute of music ( world respected).

Don't think this would happen before the end of the school yr .

The plant ( in portland) has many senior corporate employees on their way out and many new employees who don't know the business very well. That is where my husband comes in. He has been with them for 12 plus yrs and has been a big part of their continuos improvement in cleveland. All of his dept.'s run smoothly, all of his people are happy. They are bursting at the seems with business in Portland and do not have the proper people/facilities to keep up with the work....seems he might be valuable to them in Portland?

I guess in my earlier Q I was thinking more along the lines of "what might be a reasonable increase in salary to ship the family across the country". In my opinion ( and I've done some checking) he has been underpaid for yrs....!! so is 30 k more...40 k more...50 k more? I think they need him but wonder ( since he has been underpaid) if they think they might get him cheaper.....They just gave him a well deserved, long overdue 11% raise...enough to keep up with inflation!!!..I am an artist...SO not a corporate person!

[Nell Plotts]

Your husband's current salary. The first thing to do is to have a NEW job description prepared for the Portland position and a pay range established. Then ask corporate HR to do a salary study in light of the NEW responsibilities. If they were recruiting for that job would it be a local, regional or national search? The scope of the salary study is determined by the scope of the recruiting area adjusted for the cost of living locally (ie, a job for whom a national search is conducted where $100,000 midpoint is indicated would command about $130,000 in the Silicon Valley or ~ $80,000 in Boise). He should at least be brought up to the minimum of the salary range and a plan to bring him up to the midpoint discussed. The midpoint is the 'journeyman' rate.


Portland has a fine youth symphony. Most of the high schools have a marching band but it isn't as big a deal as it is in many parts of the country. Portland has produced a musician of note recently (from Wikipedia):

FYI:
Early life and education

Spalding grew up in the King neighborhood of Portland, Oregon,[6] a neighborhood she describes as "ghetto" and "pretty scary".[7] Her mother raised her and her brother as a single parent.[8]
Spalding has a diverse ethnic background.[7][9] She notes, "My mom is Welsh, Hispanic, and Native American, and my father is black."[10][11] She also has an interest in the music of other cultures, including that of Brazil,[12] commenting, "With Portuguese songs the phrasing of the melody is intrinsically linked with the language, and it’s beautiful".[13]
Her mother shares Spalding's interest in music, having nearly become a touring singer herself.[8][14] But while Spalding cites her mother as a powerful influence who encouraged her musical expansion, she attributes her inspiration for pursuing a life in music to watching classical cellist Yo Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood when she was four.[8]
By the time Spalding was five, she had taught herself to play the violin and was playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon.[8] Spalding stayed with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon until she was fifteen and left as concertmaster.[8] Due to a lengthy illness when she was child, Spalding spent much of her elementary school years being homeschooled,[8] but also attended King Elementary School in Northeast Portland.[6] During this time she also found the opportunity to pick up instruction in music by listening to her mother's college teacher instruct her mother in guitar.[13] According to Spalding, when she was about 8 her mother briefly studied jazz guitar in college; Spalding says, "Going with her to her class, I would sit under the piano. Then I would come home and I would be playing her stuff that her teacher had been playing."[13] Spalding also played oboe and clarinet before discovering the bass in high school.[2][8] She is able to sing in English, Spanish and Portuguese.[15]
Discovering the bass

http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.17/common/images/magnify-clip.png (broken link)
Spalding performing at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy on July 12, 2007


Spalding had intended to play cello,[13] but discovered the bass during a one-year stint at age 14 at the prestigious performing arts high school, The Northwest Academy, to which she had won a scholarship.[16][17] The school was not a good fit, but the bass was.[16] Spalding found high school "easy – and boring" and dropped out. When asked in 2008 why she plays the bass instead of some other instrument, Spalding said that it wasn't a choice, but the bass "had its own arc" and resonated with her.[18] Spalding says that for her discovering the bass was like "waking up one day and realizing you’re in love with a co-worker".[13] By the time she randomly picked up the bass in music class and began experimenting with it, she had grown bored with her other instruments.[16][19] Her band teacher showed her a blues line for the bass which she later used to secure her first gig.[16] After that, she went in to play the bass daily and gradually fell in love.[13]

When she was 15 or 16 years old, Spalding started writing lyrics for music for the local indie rock/pop group Noise for Pretend, touching on any topic that came to mind.[18] Although she had taken a few private voice lessons which taught her how to protect her voice, her primary singing experience had come from "singing in the shower", she said,[18] before she started performing vocals for Noise for Pretend.[13] Her desire to perform live evolved naturally out of the compositional process, when she would sing and play simultaneously to see how melody and voice fit together, but she acknowledges that performing both roles can be challenging.[13][20] In a 2008 interview, she said, "[W]hat can be difficult is being a singer, in the sense that you are engaged with the audience, and really responsible for emoting, and getting into the lyrics, melody, etc and being an effective bassist/band leader."[20]

[worriedwife]

Thank you Nell Plotts, you are a very knowledgeable person. We are going out to Portland to have a look in May or June.....no salary discussed yet. Is this typical?

[Nell Plotts]

Your husband really needs to take the lead in this. He should bring up this to either his corporate HR or his manager.

I will share with you why I think many women are not paid as much as men, all things being equal: they expect to be rewarded for their efforts, they do not negotiate pay. Your husband may exhibit the same behavior pattern. Employers expect managers to negotiate, to sell their contribution to the business and tell their manager that they expect to be compensated appropriately then discuss how that should be determined (as I discussed earlier). If he does not sell himself they will not just sprinkle him with coins. My $0.02.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by worriedwife

Thank you Nell Plotts, you are a very knowledgeable person. We are going out to Portland to have a look in May or June.....no salary discussed yet. Is this typical?

I don't think anyone can call this typical or non-typical. But I can tell you that your husband better start with the salary questions now before you move to determine whether or not the move will be of benefit to your family.

He should be going to his HR department now and without delay. It's up to him to bring it up and discuss any possible negotiations. Salaries in Portland tend to be lower than in other places. It does not matter what you think your spouse is worth. He is worth whatever he can negoiate.

I think he is wasting valuable time not bringing this up first and foremost to his employer. His being so passive about it is sending a message to his employer that he is willing to take whatever they choose to give him.