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Old 06-09-2015, 12:36 PM
 
453 posts, read 525,006 times
Reputation: 287

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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrGompers View Post
I personally don't see how that's possible in underwriting. Especially in Allentown, PA as that place is a ****hole and has been decimated for at least 30 years. Billy Joel even wrote a song about it. I'm sure they could fill those jobs at $10 an hour. Do you have payroll data?

Now if you said San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, I would believe you.
No payroll data, I'm certainly not privy to that. I work closely with our satellite offices and we discuss these things. Customer service even starts at $13-15 an hour - underwriting is not a low skilled job. You have to thoroughly understand insurance risk and coverages to do the position, otherwise you leave the company at risk for potentially millions in losses.

DE would not interest me in the least - just seems like a blah drive through state no different than RI. I've driven from top to bottom and yes, beaches are nice, but generally I found it unappealing. I'm not surprised you had that experience.

 
Old 06-09-2015, 12:37 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
5,104 posts, read 4,778,850 times
Reputation: 3636
Quote:
Originally Posted by FunkOdyssey View Post
I'm pretty sure that's what's happening, on a large scale. I'll be in Greenville, SC by 2018.



Alot of the people who used to make $80,000 in CT and don't anymore still live here, like the many IT professionals and engineers who were replaced by more affordable temporary H1-B workers. Many CT jobs making $80,000 are unsustainable and not competitive with the global marketplace, just like our state workers' benefits and pensions. A reckoning is coming.

At $55,000, you don't have the same bullseye painted on your back by the corporate bean counters. You get to keep your job down in booming South Carolina where new jobs are being created rapidly, while your $55,000 buys the same lifestyle that costs $80k in Connecticut. And you don't freeze your balls off every winter. Life is good.

I'm not a fan of racing to the bottom but it is the reality of our times. Adapt or die, right?
One reason wages stay high in CT/MA/NY/NJ is there is competition for educated experienced people here. Conversely, this is one of the dangers of having everyone going to college though. If that doesn't change at some point even the high wages of the northeast are going to be driven down. When everyone has a BS degree that becomes the new floor.

South Carolina isn't creating those high skilled jobs. There isn't much competition for people to stamp out parts on an assembly line in an auto plant at $12 and hour. Anyone who can read and write can step into that job and that is the way it was designed. Try stepping into a CPA's job without the education.

The one positive I do see is that places like South Carolina are probably good for retired people. So make your high wages in the northeast then retire somewhere else. The extra beauty of that is if you have a pension CT can't tax it if you don't live here. Take that pension somewhere else. And like someone else just said your social security wages will be higher too because of the higher wages you earned in CT during your career.

I will probably follow a course like this myself when its time for me to retire.
 
Old 06-09-2015, 12:49 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
5,104 posts, read 4,778,850 times
Reputation: 3636
Quote:
Originally Posted by ctguy87 View Post
No payroll data, I'm certainly not privy to that. I work closely with our satellite offices and we discuss these things. Customer service even starts at $13-15 an hour - underwriting is not a low skilled job. You have to thoroughly understand insurance risk and coverages to do the position, otherwise you leave the company at risk for potentially millions in losses.

DE would not interest me in the least - just seems like a blah drive through state no different than RI. I've driven from top to bottom and yes, beaches are nice, but generally I found it unappealing. I'm not surprised you had that experience.
Does it require a college degree ? Anything that has a potential risk of millions of dollars (for making a mistake like you said above) is going to be reviewed by multiple people (if the company is smart) I don't see how 1st line employees will have that responsibility placed on them.

For example, in accounting every thing is basically reviewed a minimum of 3 times. No way we're going to allow entry level employees to make unilateral decisions with potential risk of millions of dollars.

I suggest you visit Allentown, PA and ask yourself if you would live there even for $20 per hour. That population is so desperate I don't why a company would need to pay $13 an hour or more. I have a feeling you're talking about affiliates or franchises. Such as insurace brokers who help people find poliices and receive commissions.

If the job requires a college degree you probably won't find that either in the Allentown population. The few with college degrees left years ago I would guess.
 
Old 06-09-2015, 12:59 PM
 
2,695 posts, read 3,456,804 times
Reputation: 1652
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrGompers View Post
South Carolina isn't creating those high skilled jobs. There isn't much competition for people to stamp out parts on an assembly line in an auto plant at $12 and hour. Anyone who can read and write can step into that job and that is the way it was designed. Try stepping into a CPA's job without the education.
While some of that might be true, same could be said up here. Sikorsky laid off something like 800-1000 well paid engineers, skilled workers and business people in the past year. And to replace these jobs we have Amazon hiring for 500 mostly low skilled jobs. It seems like in CT a business will let people go, say engineers, we replace them with Tanger Outlet jobs and people say this is recovery. It doesn't seem like it to me. So everywhere has it weaknesses.

I can't speak for all of South Carolina, but the Charleston Metro is doing well and is hiring a range of workers from low skill (stampers) to very highly skilled Doctors and Engineers. They are building 2 huge medical facilities and tech incubators. King Street is filled with young people and many many start up companies. They also have the Citadel which produces very well educated young people.

No where is perfect and I will more than likely stay in CT, unless something changes.
 
Old 06-09-2015, 01:01 PM
 
2,333 posts, read 1,475,112 times
Reputation: 922
This thread has been really enlightening for me, as a young person who was planning to buy a house in CT within the next year with my SO. We both work remotely and can take our "big city" salaries anywhere... we were willing to pay the premium for CT because we loved it there, based on all our visits while living in Westchester. But the current state of the economy here is really depressing. We've been looking into Richmond, VA as an alternative and may just do that due to the low costs. By all measures it does seem like a place where, in the suburbs at least, you get excellent schools, safety, and low taxes or other costs.

Excuse me if this is a stupid question but... For someone in our income bracket, about $250k combined, it doesn't seem like we'll be directly affected by the income tax increases or the car tax decreases so I just want to ask... throughout all these tax hikes that have been going on over several years, do the people "in the middle" usually feel it hard? I know that if all these businesses/wealthy people leave every tax will increase at some point but generally speaking, do middle income people tend to shrug them off? We're coming from CA, where every tax but property is already much higher (currently) anyway but I certainly wouldn't want CT to match it at some point in the future.
 
Old 06-09-2015, 01:09 PM
 
453 posts, read 525,006 times
Reputation: 287
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrGompers View Post
Does it require a college degree ? Anything that has a potential risk of millions of dollars (for making a mistake like you said above) is going to be reviewed by multiple people (if the company is smart) I don't see how 1st line employees will have that responsibility placed on them.

For example, in accounting every thing is basically reviewed a minimum of 3 times. No way we're going to allow entry level employees to make unilateral decisions with potential risk of millions of dollars.

I suggest you visit Allentown, PA and ask yourself if you would live there even for $20 per hour. That population is so desperate I don't why a company would need to pay $13 an hour or more. I have a feeling you're talking about affiliates or franchises. Such as insurace brokers who help people find poliices and receive commissions.

If the job requires a college degree you probably won't find that either in the Allentown population. The few with college degrees left years ago I would guess.
I would not live in Allentown personally. My only point mentioning that was the consistent pay, at least in my field. Yes, it requires a college degree. No, it is not entry level. It is a small office - of course employing much less people than our offices in the Hartford area. We are not brokers. The starting pay is greater than $20 / hour. I think this conversation is getting off track.
 
Old 06-09-2015, 01:30 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
34,636 posts, read 56,378,147 times
Reputation: 11150
This thread has gone way off the topic of the OP. There are three threads going on now discussing basically the same thing. I am going to close this one down. Please post on the other two threads to discuss this topic. Thank you for your posts. JayCT, Moderator
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