LEWISTON – If you’re a claims adjuster for a local insurance company making $19 per hour, pay attention – you’re underpaid.
The median pay for claims adjusters in the Lewiston-Auburn market is $25.86 per hour. For real estate appraisers, it’s $26.28. And automotive body repairers, $15.80.
These wages – and hundreds of others – appear on the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce Web site, the result of a first-ever collaboration between the chamber and the state Department of Labor to quantify local wages and salaries.
“We’re trying to provide business intelligence,” said John Dorrer, director of Maine Labor Market Information Services.
The pilot project sprang from a meeting between local Chamber of Commerce people and state labor officials a few months ago. Each group was trying to provide relevant wage information but was running into impediments. For the state, the problem was timeliness. Although the federal government collects vast volumes of wage and salary data every year, it takes months to collate and distribute.
For the chamber, which publishes a wage and salary survey for its 1,200 members, the problem was sample size.
“We sat together and asked what we could do to become more current and meet their needs,” Dorrer said.
The answer was to take the Employment Cost Index – sort of an occupational version of the Consumer Price Index – and apply it to the 2005 data collected in the state’s Occupational Employment Survey. The resulting data is believed to be current to the first quarter of 2006.
“This is much more recent,” said Chip Morrison, president of the chamber. “Before, with the government data, it was 18 months old by the time it was released, and in today’s world, that’s just too late.”
He said it’s particularly difficult for small businesses to get solid wage and salary information that is relevant to this area of Maine. The pilot survey includes wages for all job categories.
So far, it has generated good feedback from the chamber’s membership, most of whom find the data helpful, although a few who’d like a more detailed breakdown.
“I understand some have asked if we can break down the data by industry,” said Dorrer. But he’d received an e-mail that morning from a local businessman who said he was pleased at how comprehensive the information was and that he intended to use it immediately.
For businesses that want to be competitive, the data is key.
“It lets a businessperson look at wages and decide, Am I on the low end? The high end?’ And it’s pegged to the L-A labor market,” said Dorrer. “Is this a wage that will hold a high-performing employee or do I have to put a little more in his check to hold him here?”
Morrison said he expects the feedback will grow as more people check out the information.
Dorrer said the state will evaluate the pilot project within a few weeks and consider applying the Employment Cost Index formula to other urban labor markets.
“It’s a little bit like building the airplane in flight, but we think this will be useful,” said Dorrer.
For the complete survey, visit http://androscoggincounty.com/eci.htm
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