by Mark Stinson
Silk Hope, NC – A quick thought. Costco’s Richard Galanti confirmed that the retailer would be raising its minimum wage from $13 to $14, effective June 11 because of the GOP tax cuts. WalMart is going from $9 to $11 per hour like many more retailers for the same reason.
Some more thought for you. Both my younger boys graduated and both had to go outside Chatham like many other graduates to find good paying jobs. Of my 4 children all left Chatham in the dust never to return due to career futures here. While many counties around us are booming we are not so much. Working in a grocery store, fast food restaurant or coffee shop isn’t necessarily a job to maintain a living wage for a family; but maybe for a kid right out of high school. We need real jobs with job training that pay well.
The new chicken plant is a remodel and reconstruction of an existing plant. Chatham farmers and Siler City had a great deal to do with that being brought back to life at the tune of 750 plus jobs all paying over minimum wage with good benefits and putting any job at Costco to shame. By the way it speaks volumes when one can afford to shop at Costco; I certainly can’t.
Chatham Park is already claiming local businesses it grows into the monster we all thought it would be. There will be a new grocery store in the park with higher prices in a higher priced neighborhood. It’s my understanding it just killed the Pig in Pittsboro as they can’t afford to build a new store to compete.
The megasite may be a job creator but as it sits no jobs are coming from it at this time. I feel it would be a great idea to offer incentives to our current businesses to keep them in Chatham and help them grow. There was a discussion at the Crossroads not long ago. Over 30 business in a ten mile radius of there have gone out of business or moved out of Chatham to a better environment conducive for business growth. If the business environment in an area is already harsh, at best, you can’t force businesses to pay a living wage when many operate on a thin profit margin. You will simply put them out of business and leave their employees looking at their own dead pig with no job to go to.
I will say this. The current Chatham County commissioners have shown they can work with people. But if they plan to make a real difference they need to distance themselves from the national Democratic party of haters, socialists, open border fanatics and far left progressives. I just want them to listen to us and act like we all matter. Not just one corner of the county.
All Chathamites matter!
Uumm, sounds like a new hashtag to me.