Nick is undervalued!

An independent consulting group has determined that Guam's government salaries are 59% lower than national average, and has made recommendations to restructure the pay system in every department. Apparently, Guam law requires the local government employees' pay scale to be adjusted every year to meet the national average - but it hasn't been adjusted in 19 years. If you are interested, you can read about it here:

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20100428/NEWS01/4280315/1002/6-000-may-get-raises

or here:

http://www.kuam.com/Global/story.asp?S=12380041#

It means that Gov Guam workers - including attorneys - might be looking at a pay raise. But Guam doesn't appear to actually have the money to fund a pay raise, so we're not about to count this chicken until it's hatched! 

Actually, I think it is a bit silly - they want to raise wages to attract and retain good talent (that is, to keep people from working a few years and then heading to the mainland). I'll agree that they don't pay enough for a young attorney to maintain a decent standard of living on the island, but the job market is so bad these days that there are surely thousands, tens of thousands of talented, smart, hardworking young people who would be ecstatic to get any of their low-paying positions - any position at all. Guam doesn't need to raise wages to attract talent. They just need to let it be known that jobs are available. 

If you look at the report itself, you'll see that there are GovGuam workers who really are not earning enough to live on - I have no idea what positions those are or why the pay is so low - and that makes me think that the wage adjustment should be starting from the bottom and moving up as funds become available. Definitely the workers earning above $60K don't have quite the same immediate need as those earning less than $30K. But people shouldn't feel entitled to their positions or entitled to pay raises - pay raises shouldn't be handed out for jobs poorly done. Unemployment is too high for that. There are too many smart, hardworking people who would be willing and able to do the job better, for less. 

Raising wages isn't going to keep people here, either - if anything, it will probably make it easier for people to leave, because now they'll be able to justify asking for a higher salary from a potential employer stateside. If people love Guam and want to live here for the rest of their lives, they'll do that with whatever pay they are earning. If they don't like it and want to be closer to friends or family or career opportunities on the mainland, earning a few more dollars here isn't going to change that. 

So, it will be really, really nice for our little family if wages do go up - but I wonder if it is in the best interests of the island. I wonder how accurate the independent consultants were in their assessment... and I wonder if they'll ever find the funds to implement this plan, anyways. This may all be moot!