High Cost of Gasoline vs Low Orlando Wages (mortgage, budget)

[DailyJournalist]

Originally Posted by dbansal

Yeah I know NOBODY outside Orlando makes minimum wage lol. That is the Florida minimum wage btw, the federal minimum wage is indeed $5.85 an hour, and it is set to rise to $6.55 an hour on July 24. I used to live in San Francisco & Boston and knew plenty of people making $15/hr or less. Orlando is not as cheap as it used to be, but it is not an expensive city by any stretch. If you have a low skill job at Disney or a degree in a field nobody wants then don't expect to make big bucks, you won't make it here, or anywhere else.

Anybody that sais that Orlando (Florida) wages are comparable to other major states wages is in denial. I know janitors in the North East that make more that college graduates here. This is just a fact of living in Florida. It sucks and this place is mostly good for people that made their wealth in other good paying states.

[dbansal]

Originally Posted by DailyJournalist

Anybody that sais that Orlando (Florida) wages are comparable to other major states wages is in denial. I know janitors in the North East that make more that college graduates here. This is just a fact of living in Florida. It sucks and this place is mostly good for people that made their wealth in other good paying states.

Degree in what? I had a friend in San Francisco who had a degree in communications and made $12/hr working for a radio station. He would always complain, but when you get a degree in something like that what do you expect? And cost of living in NY is WAY higher than FL, so it is a ridiculous comparison anyway. I know people in Orlando who work for Symantec & Lockheed who make around 100K a year. But they have degrees in Engineering and experience, things that are in demand.

[DailyJournalist]

Originally Posted by dbansal

Degree in what? I had a friend in San Francisco who had a degree in communications and made $12/hr working for a radio station. He would always complain, but when you get a degree in something like that what do you expect? And cost of living in NY is WAY higher than FL, so it is a ridiculous comparison anyway. I know people in Orlando who work for Symantec & Lockheed who make around 100K a year. But they have degrees in Engineering and experience, things that are in demand.

Florida would be a great place to live if everybody lived in your "Fantasy Florida".

[dbansal]

Originally Posted by DailyJournalist

Florida would be a great place to live if everybody lived in your "Fantasy Florida".

Nice rebuttal... I'm glad your exaggerated version of Orlando is just a fantasy.

[LoveBoating]

IMO I'll be there are people working in Orlando that make a darn good salary! Depending on where a person lives, experience PLUS a Degree will get you a descent paying job. Some people get a Degree and think "Now I will get that high paying job"......I don't think so!! Our niece is a prime example. When she got a Master's in Special Education, she thought she was going to go out in the "teaching world" and get a high paying job right away. Nope, she needed experience to go with that Degree (which she got) and now makes a nice salary as a Special Ed teacher.
I don't have a Degree (or Certificate) in Purchasing or Inventory Management and darn sure don't expect to make the same kind of salary my wife does having both Accounting experience and a Bachelors Degree.
When I was single and making $9 per hr. in So Calif./Orange County, I done ok. And that was in 1999 and before. There are things a person can do to be able to "make it" on a lower salary which mostly comes from no experience and no college degree.

[DailyJournalist]

LOL, I cant believe you guys are trying to say that Orlando and Florida as a whole has competetive wages compared to other states. When I was fresh out of high school with no experience I made $15 working at a Shop Rite warehouse in 1994. Thats top pay in Florida now in 2008. This is not Orlando bashing, this is a fact and many people know you will get a severe cut in pay in Florida, it just is not a state with a big corporate or industrial economy. The majority of the economy is run on tourism. Recent college grads are better off starting their careers in other states and then moving here if that is what they want.

[bdpop]

When I lived in New Jersey, I was a Human Resources Generalist making about 43K a year with bonus and stock options. This was back in 2003. Let me also say, I had no college degree. Now, here it is 2008 and not only can't I get a Human Resources job in Orlando without a degree, (which by the way is possible to get w/o a degree in NJ) but the jobs start at less than half of what I was making way back in 2001. At least I did go back to school and will have my degree next year. I decided that if they want a degree, I will just have to get one. Now, after I graduate, I will have thousands of dollars of student loans to repay. I won't be able to do that on an Orlando starting salary. It is really a shame because I originally grew up here and I kind of like it here (but not as much as I used to!).

[Magnulus]

Orlando is going to have very poor prospects in a future with high gas prices as the norm. The economy here just isn't diverse enough. Pay is too low and there aren't enough niches for people to fill like other cities.

[DailyJournalist]

Originally Posted by Magnulus

Orlando is going to have very poor prospects in a future with high gas prices as the norm. The economy here just isn't diverse enough. Pay is too low and there aren't enough niches for people to fill like other cities.

I agree, I believe that Orlando and most of the state of Florida is similar to some carribean islands like Jamaica, were it is mostly inhabited by tourists and rich retirees that made thier money elsewhere and the locals work the low-paying service jobs and barely get by. The problem is that Florida was never planned to have an economy based on anything other than tourism and the result is what you have today. Most major corporations that are not tourist related only bring call-centers to exploit the cheap labor. There is not a corporate or industrial culture. You have M.B.A's making the less in Florida than some janitors make in other states. This situation will never change because the major exploiters like Disney and the rest do not want it to and the politicians are happy to follow them.

[bdpop]

Pleasure Island is closing. I wonder what the real reason is behind this.