South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Employment

Employment SF City Council Sioux Falls Tom Greco

Sioux Falls City Salaries released

l3wis 2Comments

The numbers just came out this afternoon, so I have yet to fully review them. But after a quick look I was surprised to see that a lot of the mid-management got around $7,000 raises. I guess what surprises me is that sales taxes only went up about 3.5% from the year before (still waiting on final numbers).

Funny how the building permit numbers and raises come out almost instantly after January 1st, but we are still waiting on sales tax returns.

One surprise that stuck out was the City Clerk’s raise of $7,446. When Tom Greco was hired after retiring from the military, he was put at the top of the pay scale immediately, even though he doesn’t have a city clerk certification. In fact, after promising to get that certification, he still doesn’t have it. I guess I don’t understand that large of a pay raise when he still has to receive certification after 3 years. Also, his two assistant city clerks actually have more tenure, experience and certifications than their boss, go figure.

Here are the past three years of salary records;

2019-Wages

2018-Wages

2017-Wages

Employment Minimum Wage Sioux Falls

Business owner who complained about Teen Minimum wage expands business

l3wis 7Comments

Funny how these things happen;

B & G Milky Way franchise owner DiAnn Burwell said “I’m here from open to close, every day, making sure the stores run right. I do my own accounting, I do my own ordering, I do my scheduling,Ii do everything. If I could afford to have somebody do that for me, I would, so $8.50 an hour scared me to death.”

Dropping the minimum wage for teens under 18 a dollar, from $8.50 to $7.50 an hour, may help some small business owners like Burwell.

“DiAnn gave a big sigh, it eased the pressure off me somewhat,” Burwell said.

It seems the only thing she was worried about was her bottom line, which seems to be doing just fine two years later;

The franchisee, a Sioux Falls couple, will operate the new location along 41st Street just east of the Harmodon Park entrance, said Bruce Bettmeng, who owns B&G with his wife, Pam. The Bettmengs will own the land and building, and lease it to the franchisee. The couple isn’t ready to announce their ownership yet, Bettmeng said. The wife worked for him at the B&G on West 12th Street about a decade ago.

If there is any argument behind raising the minimum wage, it should be it’s GOOD for business. I find it hard to believe they can continue to sell this successful franchise if the franchise owners were struggling to pay employees.

Employment Healthcare Healthcare reform

Here’s a story that is years past due

l3wis 18Comments

When the state legislature was arguing to increase teacher pay from last place with a half-penny sales tax increase, I argued at the time ‘What about the rest of us?’ Especially other professionals in the state, like nurses;

According to the American Nurses Association, South Dakota’s registered nurses have the lowest annual salary of any state and the District of Columbia, ranking 51st behind Mississippi, Alabama and Iowa.

The association reports that South Dakota’s 12,530 registered nurses received an average annual salary of $57,010, or $27.41 per hour in 2017. California’s RNs posted the highest compensation at $102,700, $49.37 per hour.

Health care officials say many factors contribute to South Dakota’s comparatively poor compensation levels for nursing, including the rural nature of the state, as well as low reimbursement rates to hospitals from Medicare, Medicaid and Indian Health Services.

I would agree Medicare/Medicaid expansion probably would help. But I have argued for years that if we want to increase teacher pay, we should concentrate on raising EVERYONES PAY! I have had several friends leave the state who work in the healthcare industry for the same reason, PAY. In fact two of my friends that are RNs literally DOUBLED their pay overnight by leaving the state. Think about that. DOUBLED! They also told me the same stories about the healthcare industry in Sioux Falls, where pay is top heavy and run amuck with corruption and greed. They also said, when it comes to nursing pay between the two major hospitals, there is obvious wage collusion going on. One of my friends who worked at both systems before she left for greener pastures said to me, “Don’t you think it is a little strange that both hospital’s nursing pay is IDENTICAL?” Yeah, things that make you go hmmmm.

But I don’t want to make this about nursing alone, many professionals in our state are below average when compared to other states. So when I hear our teachers need more pay, I would agree, but in reality your pay is reflective of what the rest of us are making.

So why has it taken so long for a news agency to cover this story? I think we know the answer to that question.

Employment Sioux Falls

Citi’s slow bleed

l3wis 3Comments

I warned that Citi would be having layoffs in September of 2017. They are claiming it is to prepare for their ‘expansion’. More like ‘reduction’. They seem to be doing it little by little.

So far they have had two ‘layoff’ incidents since September that add up to roughly 80 employees (these of course are ones we have heard about).

I wonder how many more ‘incidents’ we will hear about.

Developers Development Employment Sioux Falls South Dakotans

Wages not keeping up with housing costs

l3wis 3Comments

As you will see, this isn’t just happening in Sioux Falls and South Dakota, but across the nation;

Of the roughly 420,000 South Dakota jobs classified by the U.S. Department of Labor, several sectors dominate. About 63,000 jobs are in office support positions, another 47,000 in retail sales, about 42,000 in food preparation and service, 17,000 in grounds maintenance, 15,000 in personal care and service and 11,000 in health care support. South Dakota is routinely among the top states in percentage of residents who hold more than one job.

But what is that statistic? I have often wondered where to get that.

In the Sioux Falls metro market, inflation-adjusted median household income fell by 4.5 percent from 2008 to 2015; in the city of Sioux Falls, it fell by 8 percent over that time frame. Meanwhile, the number of households making $15,000 to $25,000 a year in Sioux Falls jumped by 50 percent during that period.

It’s really the middle-class income that hasn’t really changed at all.

That the housing shortage for low-income residents is worsening in Sioux Falls. The study notes that for every 100 families making 30 percent or less of the local median family income, only 39 affordable housing units are available.

I have often argued that Sioux Falls is growing too fast, growth for growth’s sake essentially. I was watching a news story last week where they were training middle school kids how to build houses. Really? While I don’t have a problem with industrial arts (I took 3 classes in school, drafting, wood working and construction) I also helped work construction with my brother and dad’s business.

Maybe we just keep building to just build. Sioux Falls really needs to slow it down a bit and concentrate on fixing up core neighborhoods and revitalization, which provides affordable housing. Sprawling out of our limits only drives up infrastructure and housing costs. Making due with what we have with the workforce to do it properly instead of this constant motion of ramrodding development.

We really don’t have a housing issue, we have a wage issue.

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