300 New Jobs in Presque Isle? Sez Who?

Good news if it's true.
Is the work force available?

These 300 jobs would pay a little over $8/hour.

charlie

Do you think they should pay more?

Call me nuts, but I think $8 is great for a call center gig, especially in that area! I was making $9 back in Burlington, Mass in 2002 as a paging operator for hospitals...and that was WITH the 3rd shift differential.

Ok You are nuts.
$8 an hour is crap. It equates to about $16,500 a year gross. Even in Presque Isle $8/hour won't go very far.
For a young person it's not a bad start but for anyone else, it is a poverty wage if you are trying to support a family.

That's pretty close to where Maine's top income tax rate of 8.5% kicks in.

So, young people just starting out now have an opportunity where they didn't before. How can this be turned into a negative?

The 8.5% MARGINAL tax rate kicks in at about $18K of TAXABLE income, that is, after standard deduction and exemptions (worth about $5000 for a single person).

charlie

Better than a sharp stick in the eye. Let's have some welfare to work!

charlie

Why accept this as the reality? My daughter works in a call center in Lewiston and makes over $13.00 per hour plus benefits that include a 401K with matching funds and health and dental insurance. Are we certain that these jobs only pay $8?

Let me try again....

#1 Read the headline. It says will create 300 jobs.

#2 Read the news report. It says: The company plans to open as soon as the first quarter of 2007 with about 50 employees and eventually expand to about 300 employees with a $5 million payroll, O'Donnell said.

In other words, a reader just scanning the headline would think the 300 jobs are a done deal. In fact, they are not.

skf

being a numbers person I guess what caught my eye was the 300 jobs with a payroll of $5,000,000 which works out to a something over $8/hr. for a 40 hour work week. Better than a sharp stick in the eye, that's true. But collecting unemployment is better than a sharp stick in the eye too. In either case, not something to rejoice about.

charlie

There was a press release concerning this issue on the state of maine website dated 11/3. If you read the press release, it would lead one to believe that these positions are low paying and even references benefits as "options" that will be available to employees. I like the part that takes about the people of Maine as the "gold standard". This state can do better by its' people.

Then why don't you guys get on the phone to these folks and ask them to take their jobs and potential jobs elsewhere? For people who complain about the lack of jobs in the state, and that low paying jobs are an acceptable part of the economy, you sure confuse me on this one.

You are spot on MacGregor!

Before we blow up this bridge let's see if its built first. I'm wondering why a Canadian telemarketing firm would put a call center in the US? It must be to service US clients because if it were for Canadians the workforce would have to be bilingual.
There certainly is a workforce available in the county.
Oh, and taking the 5 mil and dividing it out is not accurate. There probably would be a number of part-time jobs like other call centers in Maine. But before we get into that I'm with the ED. Show me the money first.

I think US telemarketers cost less than Canadians; or maybe they will pay us in Loonies, or Cashman gave away the farm again in incentives or???

No-one ever compares what these promise with what they deliver.