Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 13, 1990 TAG: 9005090491
SECTION: DISCOVER THE NEW RIVER VALLEY PAGE: 21 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Melvin Fiel, job service manager for the VEC in Radford, said those companies that are hiring are paying the same wages or less than last year.
But Fiel said there is a positive side to low wages: They make the area more desirable to potential new industries.
The cause of declining wages is layoffs in some slumping industries and the expected loss of almost 1,000 jobs when AT&T moves its Fairlawn operations to Texas and Mexico. AT&T layoffs will begin this summer, but some workers already are leaving.
Fiel said one major employer that will hire about 100 workers this fall will offer good fringe benefits but the starting pay will be just over $200 a week.
The VEC's latest quarterly figures actually show a healthy increase in manufacturing wages for Pulaski County. The average paycheck was $446, up from $357 in fall 1988. But the VEC's figures were taken after the second quarter of 1989 - long before AT&T said it would move and the other layoffs occurred.
The valley has lost more than 1,300 jobs in the last six months.
According to the VEC figures, the average paycheck for all Virginia industries was $413 last year. Figures for the valley: Floyd, $268; Pulaski County, $368; Montgomery, $356; Radford, $371, Giles, $357.
Construction wages ranged from $237 in Floyd to $405 in Radford. The state average was $425. Retail salaries ranged from $171 to $188, and the statewide average was $230.
In the VEC's finance, insurance and real estate category, the range was from $246 in Giles to $367 in Pulaski; the state average was $469. Pay in service jobs ranged from $148 in Floyd to $333 in Radford, with $397 the state average.
In two sectors, some valley localities fared better than average.
State government workers earned $534 in Floyd and $506 in Montgomery, whereas the valley average was $441. In manufacturing, Radford topped the state average of $468 by $8.
A study by VEC economist Robert Griffis called into question a common perception: that as service jobs replace manufacturing jobs, wages go down.
Griffis said that was true to some extent nationally, but not in Virginia. Nearly three-quarters of the service sector employment growth from the years in the study, 1980 to 1987, came in job groups that pay more than the average wage.
by CNB