Sorry, I don't buy it. And I do look at the big picture. I've worked in
Tennessee and its neighbor North Carolina for clients over the years. Even
did a few stints in LA (Hollywood and some other place which escapes me at
the moment). The systems programming salaries in these "other" areas were
higher or lower than they were here in the Philly area, but not that much,
maybe 15-20%. (I guess 20% is a LOT...)
To me it's a case of perceived value with a modicum of "trolling" by some
companies to get what they want for as low an expense as they can; which is
their right and duty. In the 80's and early 90's "our" value was perceived
to be high; after all, we kept the machines running and supported those that
supported the programmers that supported the users that supported the
business. Since then, our salaries have been compressed because the value
of our services/skills has been reduced. It's just the nature the beast.
(life)
-----Original Message-----
Behalf Of Edward E. Jaffe
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 2:52 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@no-spam
Gary Green wrote:
>It's right up there with a posting from Tennessee looking for a Senior
>Systems type with decades of experience on just about every system and
>sub-system in the MVS world and was willing to pay "up to" $23.00 per hour.
>
You really need to look at the big picture when comparing salaries
across the country and/or the world.
According to
http://www.realtor.org/Research.nsf/files/REL03Q4T.pdf/$FILE/REL03Q4T.pdf,
the 2003 median home price in Chattanooga was $117K while the price in
LA was $355K for the same period. Using that metric for comparison,
$23/hr in Chattanooga is worth almost $70/hr in LA -- at least when
trying to buy a house. Add to that the effects of progressive taxation
at the Federal level and the fact that Tennessee levies no state income
tax (other than for interest and dividends) vs California's outrageous
9.3% and that $23/hr in Chattanooga gets closer to $90/hr in LA!
It's not what you get paid. It's what you can buy with what the
government lets you keep that matters.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Edward E. Jaffe | |
| Mgr, Research & Development | edjaffe@no-spam |
| Phoenix Software International | Tel: (310) 338-0400 x318 |
| 5200 W Century Blvd, Suite 800 | Fax: (310) 338-0801 |
| Los Angeles, CA 90045 | http://www.phoenixsoftware.com |
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