A panel Tuesday discussed how low wages and poverty are related, and they also talked about ways to improve wages in the community.
What might get lost in the conversation, however, is the very real need for diversity in pay scales and how a diverse wage scale benefits a community.
We all say communities need good-paying jobs. As important, though, is a growth-community needs to have a diverse offering of unskilled and skilled labor jobs as well as professional jobs. If a community has too much of one or the other, it’s not conducive to economic growth or vitality.
There is a need for a minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs are meant to be at the very entry-level stage — for teens or persons just getting into the work force. The idea is a minimum wage job should be temporary. People should improve their skills and move up to better-paying jobs as they get more experience.
The other thing to consider is competition and demand. Where there is a low supply of workers, businesses are forced to increase their wages in order to fill jobs, and this is the situation Enid is facing now. Many employers are raising their starting wages because of a shortage of workers.
Jobs have a market value, and the market value varies from community to community and region to region.
What Enid must do in order to be competitive with other markets as a desirable place to live and work is have a diverse offering of jobs and continue to build businesses and industries that require skilled labor and professional training that bring the higher wages. A diverse job base offers workers an opportunity to move up in pay scale and jobs as they gather training and expertise.
Also, businesses and industries must more closely monitor what is going on in the state and region in regard to wages, and act accordingly. Things change quickly, and businesses that wait too long to adjust their pay scales based on demand will lose out, and so will the community.
© 2007 Enid News
Email this page
