By Dave Flessner

Staff Writer



Chris Collins works at a computer help desk in downtown Chattanooga, but the IT specialist says he could help his own career by heading south.



“I could probably make ten to fifteen thousand dollars a year more working in Atlanta than I make here,” the 33-year-old LaFayette, Ga., native said. “The pay is simply better down there.”



A new government wage study suggests that many Chattanoogans are similar to Mr. Collins, who says he makes about $29,000 a year at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.



The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the average worker in Atlanta was paid $7,040 more than the typical Chattanooga worker last year. Among the occupations sampled across the country in May 2005, Chattanooga wages averaged 12.4 percent below the U.S. average and were the lowest among major cities in the Mid-South.



But career consultants caution against moving out of Chattanooga too quickly to make more money.



“A lot of national companies and government jobs pay the same across the country, and the cost of living is certainly lower in Chattanooga than in cities like Atlanta, New York or Dallas,” said Jean Dake, director of placement services at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.



The BLS survey of more than 400 occupations identified dozens of jobs where Chattanooga pay rates averaged above the U.S. mean.



PAYING A HIGHER AUTHORITY



Preachers, lawyers and pharmacists in Chattanooga were among those who enjoyed a significant advantage last year over their counterparts in most other cities, according to BLS surveys. Salaries for clergy and legal professionals in Chattanooga were the highest of any city in Tennessee and among the top 10 percent for all U.S. cities last year. Pharmacy pay in Chattanooga was in the top quartile of all cities.



“Pay levels tend to reflect the supply and demand in a market,” University of Tennessee economist Matt Murray said.



With above-average church attendance and support in Chattanooga, local ministers are more in demand, experts said. With no local law or pharmacy schools, the supply of attorneys and pharmacists isn’t as great in Chattanooga as in cities where local graduates often flood the market.



“Compared with Memphis, Knoxville and Nashville, which all have law schools, Chattanooga doesn’t have as many lawyers per capita, especially young lawyers just coming out of law school wanting to stay in the same town,” said Joseph White, president of the Chattanooga Bar Association. “When I graduated from law school in Knoxville in 1988, I know that the starting pay for lawyers was higher in Chattanooga than in Knoxville.”



Pharmacy mangers at Erlanger Medical Center also said they generally had to pay more to recruit pharmacists to town compared with cities with pharmacy schools.



“It’s a continual challenge to fill our vacancies,” said Dustin Smith, chief of operations at Erlanger’s pharmacy unit, which pays bonuses to help recruit new pharmacists.



Optometrists, internists and other physicians also earned more in Chattanooga than the national average last year, data show. Health care jobs remain among the highest-paying occupations, according to the BLS.



CHATTANOOGA PAY LAGS



But in one medical field where Chattanooga does have a healthy number of graduates, local pay rates are lower. With three nursing schools in Chattanooga, registered nurses in Chattanooga were paid an average 15.5 percent less than the U.S. average last year, according to BLS.



Other high-paying jobs in Chattanooga also were below what such workers are paid in most other cities.



Randy Douet, the vice president in charge of TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant, was paid $394,969 last year to oversee the 870-employee plant. But his salary and incentives were still 39 percent below the industry average, according to TVA. As a government-owned utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority is unable to provide stock options and other compensation prevalent in private companies, TVA spokesman John Moulton said.



Dr. Patti Skates, a Red Bank Middle School teacher, said she will be able to boost her $53,030 salary by more than $19,000 a year simply by transferring to Catoosa County, Ga. The typical teacher in Chattanooga was paid 13.7 percent less than the U.S. average last year.



“Unfortunately, we do not put enough resources into education in Hamilton County, and I think we’re all paying a price,” Dr. Skates said. “The ripple effect from the lack of commitment to education can be seen in the lower-paying jobs we tend to have and in the higher rates of drug abuse and crime.”



Dr. Murray said Tennessee had been narrowing its historic wage gap with the rest of the country through the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. But in the past decade, Tennessee wages have remained about 10 percent below the U.S. average.



“Our educational gap continues to hurt our wage growth,” he said.



The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce announced last week it is adding an educational component to its economic development program, “Tell the World.”



“Over the past several decades, Chattanooga has not achieved the level of economic growth that other communities have shown and, as a result, we’ve fallen behind in average wages,” said J.Ed. Marston, the Chamber’s vice president of marketing.



Mr. Marston said part of Chattanooga’s wage gap is offset, however, by the lower cost of living in Chattanooga. The most recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association found Chattanooga’s cost of living averaged 5.1 percent below the U.S. average during the first quarter of 2006.



Mr. Marston also noted that the lower wages for workers is an advantage in trying to lure new business to Chattanooga.



“As we work to improve our average wage rate, we do recognize that our lower average wage rates are a point of attraction for businesses looking to relocate or expand,” he said.



E-mail Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com

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