OT: Pay rate in El Paso

[FiliUTEP]

Why is pay rate low in el paso? I dont buy that because el paso is next to mexico and because of illegals? There is alot of illegals in California an Arizona and pay is good there. I applied for a job in El Paso trying to go back but they pay is too low.When will El Paso catch up with rest of the country. I would love to go back to El Paso.

 

[UTEPalum03]

I think it depends on the field of work you're looking for a job in. El Paso is really competitive in certain job fields and not so much in others. As a whole though El Paso definitely isn't a top compensation market at all.

 

[unihorn]

As long as people will take and stay in those jobs, the pay will remain low. There just isn't that much demand/competition for workers here.

 

[homeskillet75]

Does cost of living factor in as well?

My sister bought a home in Northwest El Paso for 180K that would easily fetch 350K here in Austin.

 

[UTEPDefense]

8 of the 11 largest employers in El Paso would be considered Government jobs(Fort Bliss, The School Districts, UTEP, City of El Paso, El Paso County, Etc.). Those are usually good jobs, but the fact that 8 of the largest 11 employers are not private companies, means that we don't have as many private jobs as we should.

As for the private jobs, 7 of the 10 largest private employers in El Paso are Call Centers. The 14 largest Call Centers in El Paso employ more than 10,000 people. Many businesses like to locate their incoming Call Centers in El Paso because we have so many people who speak two languages. While some of the Call Center jobs can be decent paying, they are not high enough paying to move the needle higher when they make up such a large portion of our non-government paying jobs. In order to raise wages in El Paso, we will need more private jobs( that are not just Call Centers.)

As for the cost of living, that is correct as well, you can buy a much nicer house in El Paso for less than almost any other comparable city of size in the USA. However, we do have a relatively high property tax(offset some by having no State Income Tax).

 

[shyminer81]

Sadly I had to leave EP for that very reason... Tripled my income... cost of living is higher here, but it's nice to have money lol. I would love to go back to EP one day and open a business... But not work for anyone. It's tough.I have lots of family in EP, and they struggle with jobs that should be paying a lot more. One thing I noticed is the lack of unions hurts EP. Here the unions fight hard. If i'm correct, Texas doesn't allow unions? Other than for certain sectors? Like Law enforcement?