At the start of every calendar year, the State of North Carolina issues a listing of wage standards for each county. While these standards are derived through a complex formula that takes a number of factors into consideration, they can be thought of as the "average" hourly wage a private-sector worker in the county can be expected to earn. These wage standards, in addition to providing a rough gage of the economic vitality of the community, are used by the Department of Commerce to determine eligibility for a variety of different economic development programs. As a general rule, to qualify for state-level incentive programs, the new jobs created by a project must meet the wage standard for the county in which the company plans to locate. This makes the wage standards something of a double-edged sword; a lower wage indicates a less prosperous community, but could also give that community a recruiting advantage compared to neighboring counties with higher wage standards.
The best possible scenario from an economic development standpoint is a steadily rising wage standard that remains slightly below competing communities, and that is exactly what we have in Anson County. Our 2019 wage standard is $16.04, up 2.4% from $15.67 in 2018. Among surrounding counties, that is a solid rate of increase while still remaining competitive overall.
- Montgomery $17.27 $16.60 +4.0%
- Richmond $16.35 $16.20 +1.0%
- Stanly $15.91 $15.67 +1.5%
- Union $21.09 $20.49 +2.9%
- NC $23.95 $23.35 +2.5%
All things being equal, would we prefer to have a standard wage of $21? Of course. But relatively speaking, we have a solid position among our peers and a strong story to tell the companies we are recruiting.
Comments
Post a Comment