THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607280098
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 114 lines
Government employees on the Outer Banks won't get rich, but they can make a nice living.
In a work climate still dominated by seasonal business that pays only pennies above minimum wage, government jobs on the barrier islands are one of the few plum offerings.
A town manager makes up to $67,879. A veteran teacher draws about $33,000 a year. Librarians and laborers make about $17,500.
Dare County has nearly doubled its number of employees since 1985, from 270 to 501 in 1995. In that same period, the sheriff's office hired 32 more personnel, enlarging the department to 53 employees. And in 10 years, the county payroll more than tripled - from $2,827,428 to $9,355,721.
Salaries of the highest-paid county employees, meanwhile, went up as much as one-third or more, and the number of personnel earning more than $40,000 a year went from 2 to 22.
Similarly, municipal governments expanded their work forces and increased salaries. In Manteo, the annual payroll jumped from $183,827 in 1985 to $537,524 in 1995. Ten years ago, no Nags Head official earned more than $40,000; in 1995, seven town employees were paid more than $40,000, including the town manager, whose salary nearly doubled, to $67,870 from $34,000. In Kill Devil Hills in 1985, no employees earned $40,000. In 1995, 11 town staffers made that amount or more.
``It seemed like our biggest trouble in the late `80s was that we had a lot of quick growth,'' said Shawn Murphy, administrative services director of Kill Devil Hills and the Dare County personnel director from 1983 to 1996. ``It made it difficult to attract enough people.''
Demand for emergency medical service technicians grew most rapidly, Murphy said, and for a time it was a challenge to find enough certified people to fill available positions.
But, in general, municipal salaries kept pace with growth, at least relative to that of other counties, Murphy said.
``It's been right consistent in the last 10 years as far as its position in the state,'' he said. ``In my mind, it seems like we're pretty firmly in the middle. There's really nothing that's outside the normal pay for most counties the size of this.''
But government jobs are only a portion of the county's job picture. The annual average labor force in Dare County a decade ago was 12,130, with a 4.9 percent unemployment rate. In 1995, the work force averaged 15,160 for the year; 6 percent were unemployed.
Ten years ago, the average annual salary of a worker living in Dare County was $10,022. Statewide, it was $15,964. By 1995, county averages had inched up to $16,693 annually; the state annual salary averaged $24,374.
People seldom choose to live on this narrow ribbon of sand - not centrally located and enslaved by the whims of weather - for great jobs or excellent wages. More typically, people come here to live and then figure out how they can survive.
``I think what it comes down to is that it's a trade-off,'' said a former employment agent who asked that her name not be used. ``People want to live here, and the trade-off is they don't make any money.''
In the past decade, enthralled by the quirky charm and friendly conditions of the area, thousands took the leap of faith and relocated to the Outer Banks. In the process, the service industry exploded and local governments ballooned. Lawyers, doctors, teachers and other professionals suddenly had a population that could support their livelihoods.
Yet the more things change, the more they stay the same. Despite the bloom in government jobs; despite the accompanying increase in wages; despite more businesses, more construction and more money flooding the area in the past 10 years, the cost of living is high, most available work is still seasonal and service-related, and most workers are low-paid.
``It's very difficult to rationalize how you pay people $6 an hour when a house here costs $200,000,'' said the former employment agent, who worked many years in Dare County helping unemployed or relocating workers find jobs. ``So young families don't really have a chance here.
``I don't know how many more pizza parlors or T-shirt shops we can support,'' she continued. ``We have a very small pie here, and every time we open another business, everyone's slice of pie gets smaller. We spend a lot of money attracting people, but the ones that are already here are sometimes damned near starved to death.''
Year-round residents in this resort area are notoriously hard workers in the summer months, many laboring 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. Even professionals may work extra jobs during the tourist season in anticipation of the lean winter.
``Seeing us having no work in the winter, and the most wonderful applicants you can think of . . . we have nothing to offer them,'' the former agent said, adding, ``I had been here a long, long, long time before I had run into women who made $25,000.''
Even college kids don't want to work summers on the Outer Banks as much as they used to, the woman said. ``The pay is low. The housing is not affordable. The police crack down so much on the partying,'' she said. ``They're going somewhere else.''
The Outer Banks is still on the ascension side of its saturation point, but big questions remain as to how this tourist-based economy will manage its future. As members of native families here can attest, development destroys as well as builds. Government employees guard the infrastructure and support the increasing social demands necessitated by growth. And local government jobs help anchor a wildly unstable work force, one that annually swings from 2 percent unemployment in the summer to 15 percent in the depths of winter.
Manufacturing plants won't do on the environmentally fragile Outer Banks, but a hospital would be an asset not just to locals, but to the work force, the former employment agent suggested. ``It sure would give them some employment they could feel good about,'' she said.
Most of the very affluent who live on the Outer Banks now are retirees who brought their money with them, she said.
``I really don't think we can afford to become a community of retirees. We need workers, and we need jobs.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Growth in the Outer Banks
[ Annual Salaries for Town/county manager and attorney, Fire Chief,
Police Chief. Monthly salaries for Board of Commissioners and Mayor,
Officials earning over $40,000.]
[Graphic compares towns for years 1985 and 1995]
For complete info see microfilm.]
KEYWORDS: SALARIES INCOME OUTERBANKS GOVERNMENT JOB by CNB