Why are Salaries in Phoenix so Low (Miami: appointed, transfer)

[westcoastbabe]

Just relocated here from Charlotte, NC. And while I am very much grateful and thankful that I was able to transfer with my current salary that I had in Charlotte, I'm a little disappointed with Arizona regarding salaries here. I did not realize salaries here were so low compared to Charlotte considering both cities have similar costs of living. There are jobs here in Charlotte that can command $30,000 - to $40,000, which for the most part is a pretty good salary, considering the cost of living. However, same positions here only command $8.00 - $9.00/hr. Not knocking that salary, because hey...you have to start somewhere. But for established jobs/careers starting salaries here start at $10.00/hr....Cmon Arizona, we can do better this.

[mikejjones1234]

Originally Posted by westcoastbabe

Just relocated here from Charlotte, NC. And while I am very much grateful and thankful that I was able to transfer with my current salary that I had in Charlotte, I'm a little disappointed with Arizona regarding salaries here. I did not realize salaries here were so low compared to Charlotte considering both cities have similar costs of living. There are jobs here in Charlotte that can command $30,000 - to $40,000, which for the most part is a pretty good salary, considering the cost of living. However, same positions here only command $8.00 - $9.00/hr. Not knocking that salary, because hey...you have to start somewhere. But for established jobs/careers starting salaries here start at $10.00/hr....Cmon Arizona, we can do better this.

What field are we talking about? That seems like quite a stretch to be so different in salary..qualifications? experience? are they taken in to account?

[westcoastbabe]

To be more specific, occupations in banking, Administrative Professionals, Financial Industry.

[new2colo]

Unlike Charlotte and many other cities, Phoenix really doesn't have a large pool of skilled workers who command higher salaries. As a result, the service sector, which is huge here, drives wages down. Luckily, housing is still cheap, so it is not to the point where wages are out of scale with housing costs like in Miami or Los Angeles.

[westcoastbabe]

Originally Posted by new2colo

Unlike Charlotte and many other cities, Phoenix really doesn't have a large pool of skilled workers who command higher salaries. As a result, the service sector, which is huge here, drives wages down. Luckily, housing is still cheap, so it is not to the point where wages are out of scale with housing costs like in Miami or Los Angeles.

I guess that's one way of putting a positive spin on the salary situation.

[Burning Madolf]

So you just relocated from NC and you want to raise everyone's salary?
While you're at it, contact all your reps (local, county, state and fed) and ask them to increase your taxes wherever possible.

[goolsbyjazz]

Westcoastbabe, I too was surprised by the lower wages when we first arrived. It was a pet peeve of mine then and still is.

[wit-nit]

Cost of living is cheaper here.

[Finger Laker]

May be a bit of an overstatement to a degree

I know a lot of people working retail, pharmacy store, grocery store in the $10-$12/hr range .... while not great, it's pretty basic work and above that $8-$9 benchmark

Banking is a highly variable industry - tellers don't make much money anywhere, I don't know tellers here but I imagine it isn't much different

Other parts of the financial sector can be somewhat competitive where you'll make close to what you'll make in cities like Denver, Minneapolis and other mid-range cities ..... which is probably better than some other fields

It really depends on what you do - some are lower, some are pretty good .... all up I don't think it's too off though especially given what your money can get you .... I've turned down doubling my salary a couple of times to move to L.A. where it would have been essentially walking backwards

[eastontracks]

I'll add my 2 cents, some mentioned tellers and grocery clerks that maybe don't warrant any huge salary increaae compared to other places but I've done some reaearch and find salaries lower too.

I've been looking at phx as a place to relocate down the road. I currently live in Houston and a certain field in the healthcare industry shows about 10-15k less salary in phx and I consider phx and hou to be similar in cost of living.