Archived Pay increase when transfering out of state into higher cost of living?

[TonyBologna]

So I will be moving from a St. Louis, MO store to a store in Charleston, SC this spring. There are .org websites that calculate a "cost of living index" for all cities in the U.S. Where I live currently, the index is 86. Charleston is 110. Charleston is 27% more expensive than St. Louis. I obviously know that when I transfer I will not get a 27% pay adjustment but has anyone been in a similar situation that could give me a little insight? I know of team members that moved from higher cost of living to lower that got to keep their pay, but not anyone from lower to higher. I am hourly and have been with the company for 9 years. Im currently scouting out apartments but it is tricky not knowing if my wage will go up 20 cents an hour or 2 dollars. My Hr said she wouldn't know until we were in the process of the transfer. Thanks! 🙂

 

[Darikona]

What's the minimum wage their? Because I had to take a pay hit when I moved to Oregon despite it being a higher cost of living than the midwest simply because the concept of 'competitive wage' was more over here.

 

[TonyBologna]

It is the same as where I live now. I've scoured the net and basically it depends on the business. I would assume since Target is pretty liberal that they would be right on board but if you took a hit then that kind of worries me.

 

[Darikona]

Target's political leanings are independent of market forces. They are a discount retailer and they will give the lowest wage the market will allow. You can gauge what the starting base wage will be if you try and find the starting wage for other retailers in the area.

Let me give you an example: Back in the midwest, I came from a college town where the majority of the population were college students and there was considerably turnover rate at the Wal-marts and Target there. Somewhere along the way a wage war started between the two and the starting wage became 10 dollars an hour (fyi- the states minimum wage is about 7.70 or something last I checked). This was awesome, because my rent in that city was about 300 a month for a master bedroom of a two bedroom house with utilities covered.

I moved to oregon. Cost of living went up about 200% and my wage went from 13 dollars an hour to 9.00 (at the time). Apparently there was a race to the bottom, so to speak, with the wages in this area. And because of the economy there was little incentive to raise the wages simply because of the amount of people trying to get jobs.

 

[TonyBologna]

Thanks a bunch. I suppose I will just rent shop around the wage I make now and not assume it will go up and hope it wont go down.

 

[Darikona]

Thanks a bunch. I suppose I will just rent shop around the wage I make now and not assume it will go up and hope it wont go down.

You can definitely still try and make a case to keep your wage, though it's ultimately up to your new store.