[Madaly]

Originally Posted by Chelsa1075

My Father-n-law is a baker at a grocery store in Upstate NY - he makes 15$ an hour, but only pays like 700 for rent. I'll take that - and he's union, works out great for him!

My dh works in a supermarket here in MA. Most of his chain is unionized, thankfully. He has worked there for 17 years. Depending on how many Sundays/Holidays he works, he makes as little as 42K and as Much as 47K. To many I guess that is still not that much, but what he lacks in pay he makes up for in benefits. We pay only 12 dollars a week for full health insurance, for the family, 5 of us. Copays are 20 dollars for visits. Includes health, dental, vision. He gets 4 vacation weeks a year, 9 sick days and 3 personal days.

Thank goodness for the union.

We have put our moving plans to FL on hold for the moment, for another 2 years so I can finish my degree because the insurance cost alone would kill us.

[Madaly]

Originally Posted by TNRyan23

When I worked at Kroger I made $14.50/hr 40 hours a week and always had overtime near the hollidays. There were sometimes around Thanksgiving and Christmas that we had employees taking home over $1,000 a week in their paychecks. Our union fees were around $7/check or roughly $28 a month. WELL worth it. Our union also fought hard and we had Blue Cross/Blue Shield with no co-pay and no deductible. Rent is roughly $700/mo. here too

I'd definitely take that. Can you imagine the look on my face the day I was hired after working at Albertsons making a cool $6.50/hr to walk into Kroger and be hired at $14.50. I vowed that day I would never return to Florida but those feelings have kinda faded these days.

DH works for a company called Shaws. It was bought out by Albertons, and then bought out by SuperValu. Albertsons has since been bought by Publix, I have been told.
In our quest to move to FL by this summer, dh has looked into some of the supermarkets down there and realized he would have to deal with getting paid about 1/3 of what he does now, without the benefits.
He had a few interviews, 2 on the phone and one in person in a few weeks at other places, but he cancelled them. We will wait a couple more years until maybe the time is better.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by Madaly

My dh works in a supermarket here in MA. Most of his chain is unionized, thankfully. He has worked there for 17 years. Depending on how many Sundays/Holidays he works, he makes as little as 42K and as Much as 47K. To many I guess that is still not that much, but what he lacks in pay he makes up for in benefits. We pay only 12 dollars a week for full health insurance, for the family, 5 of us. Copays are 20 dollars for visits. Includes health, dental, vision. He gets 4 vacation weeks a year, 9 sick days and 3 personal days.

Thank goodness for the union.

We have put our moving plans to FL on hold for the moment, for another 2 years so I can finish my degree because the insurance cost alone would kill us.

Jobs like that pay 7.50 an hour in Florida with no benefits unfortunately and have super high turnover.

[TXRyan23]

Originally Posted by annerk

Read again.

"During an 8-week period last summer and a six-week period at holiday time, employees were able to buy groceries up to $250 each week at a 10% discount, resulting in a maximum savings of $350 for each employee who participated."

This is what the Forbes link I posted says...

" What makes it so great?
Recent offerings at this family-owned supermarket chain: Employees could buy gift cards of up to $250 at a 10% discount to help with food costs; Wegmans is also rolling out free yoga classes at each of its stores."

So you re-read.

[TXRyan23]

Originally Posted by Madaly

DH works for a company called Shaws. It was bought out by Albertons, and then bought out by SuperValu. Albertsons has since been bought by Publix, I have been told.
In our quest to move to FL by this summer, dh has looked into some of the supermarkets down there and realized he would have to deal with getting paid about 1/3 of what he does now, without the benefits.
He had a few interviews, 2 on the phone and one in person in a few weeks at other places, but he cancelled them. We will wait a couple more years until maybe the time is better.

Yeah and the kicker to that, Publix now only hires people part time to start to boot.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by TNRyan23

This is what the Forbes link I posted says...

" What makes it so great?
Recent offerings at this family-owned supermarket chain: Employees could buy gift cards of up to $250 at a 10% discount to help with food costs; Wegmans is also rolling out free yoga classes at each of its stores."

So you re-read.

Maybe you don't care about yoga, but a lot of people do. Being able to get a discount on a gift card is a nice incentive, how many other grocery stores offer ANY employee discounts?

[crystalblue]

I dont think we need to attract any more grocery stores

What other jobs can we bring in?

I would really like to see something like the Texas Medical Center, but don't know if Florida has the land/or desire to do something like that.

and maybe something like Raleighs RTP.

maybe we could do something like this in all our major areas...

[Shoegal1075]

Yes, that is high, but you starting point is cheaper. Our starting point is inflated from the jump - you know the special thank you the city and the state like to give those who live here. THANKS! Try making 85K a year, but really only coming home with about 48K a year. Sound Good. That is what nyc, nys and the fed take from little ole me.

[DailyJournalist]

Originally Posted by Chelsa1075

Yes, that is high, but you starting point is cheaper. Our starting point is inflated from the jump - you know the special thank you the city and the state like to give those who live here. THANKS! Try making 85K a year, but really only coming home with about 48K a year. Sound Good. That is what nyc, nys and the fed take from little ole me.

You really make the greatest city in America look really bad. NYC will not miss you Im sure. Hurry and move to Florida.

[FLBob]

I think that the first step in growing the innovators and entrepreneurs needed to build a diverse economy in Florida, we need to build the number and variety of institutes for higher learning.

Areas that have large corporations to large small businesses tend to locate where they can find the talent.

More than taxes, lease costs, travel costs, and any other cost you may want to throw out there, availability of talent is a key consideration where a company will locate. Companies are successful because of their people. Companies locate where recruiting talent is easy.

Take a look at the metro areas where you have a large diverse business environment and look at the schools. With Florida being a relatively young state relative to it's population, it may take time, probably decades to develop the schools needed to move the economy to a broader platform.

When I first moved to Florida (Naples) I was amazed at the lack of schools in SW Florida. Coming from the Baltimore DC area I was accustom to an amazing number and variety of schools.

It's education that drives creativity, and creativity that starts new business, and it's growing businesses that provide jobs.