Stark County has a new marketing tool: the wage and benefit survey. While it may not be as glitzy as a 20-year tax abatement, the survey- which covers the service and manufacturing industries-is a useful tool for drawing new business to the area.
The survey is conducted by Merele Kinsey, coordinator for research and evaluation at Kent State University’s Stark Campus, in conjunction with the Stark Development Board.
Ron DeBarr, vice president of the board, says the finished reports are sometimes a significant selling point when luring new business to the area.
“When companies come from outside the Stark County area looking to conduct business here, they always compare us to other areas,” DeBarr says. “The survey helps us compete with those other areas because often it comes down to prevalent wages.”
Annual wage increases are well below the national average, running from 2 percent to 4.5 percent, according to the survey. Kinsey and DeBarr attribute lower wages to a lower cost of living in the area.
While semiskilled and general laborers have become a national scarcity, DeBarr says companies draw employees from surrounding counties as well as Stark to provide an available workforce.
The survey includes detailed information about health-care coverage, paid holidays, personal and child-care leave and the types of pensions offered.
Companies already established in the area can also benefit by using the report to “compare notes.”
Sheila Markley, managing attorney for Day, Ketterer, Raley, Wright & Rybolt Ltd. says she reviews the survey to ensure her company is in line with comparable companies in the area.
“The survey has a lot of practical applications,” Markley says. “We’re looking at the results of the survey now to see what kind of wages and benefits are being paid.”
One draw back has been the lack of participating companies. Of the 800 surveys sent to local manufacturers and service companies, only 63 responded, Kinsey says. A copy of the final reports is sent to participating companies as an incentive for them to respond.
Markley agrees the reports would be more useful if more companies participated.
“It would expand the available database,” Markley says. “I think if other companies realized how nice a job is done on the survey and how much information they can get from it, they would be more willing to participate.”
For more information, or to receive a copy of the 1998 Wage and Benefit Survey, contact the corporate and community services office of Kent State University, Stark campus, at (330) 535-3377 or (330) 499-9600.