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I have read the "employment" and "wages" sections from the drop down menu at the top of this site but I was really hoping to get some additional info on a more personal level. Any information or opinion or feedback of any sort is very much appreciated.
What kind of wages can we expect for entry level positions? I am assuming servers/bartenders are making minimum wage plus tips... what kind of wages are typical for other entry level jobs? I've heard a lot of mention about working for tour companies or on boats. Are most of these jobs minimum wage?
How rare is a $10-15/hour wage?
My husband has a lot of experience in construction and I have experience in restaurants and office work. We are both hard-working, friendly, dependable and reasonably intelligent people totally open to any available positions.
From what I've read so far, we are anticipating the high probability of working 2+ jobs each and I'm just trying to gauge what kind of income we will be dealing with (especially when trying to figure out our budget for an apartment).
Thank you again!
Posted : July 2, 2015 12:15 pm
The wages listed in the "Jobs Wages" section of of the dropdown menu gives fairly accurate ranges so I'm not sure any "personal level" numbers will be all that much different.
It's always difficult for responders here to give precise answers this type of question because most of us only know for sure what we (and our spouse/partner) earn and can only speculate what our neighbor down the street earns at their job or how much we think the bartender at our favorite watering hole took home last week. i know what I earn but honesty have no idea of what one of my best friend earns even though we've known each other for 30 plus years. People are reluctant to tell others what they actually earn, it been that way ever since I can remember.
The point being, unless one works in a certain profession we can only cite back statistics we get from reading the same articles you can find yourself or base our finding on speculation.
And yes, many jobs, especially, in the tourist industry pay minimum wage and the worker relies on tips so you never can be sure what they actually earn.
Suffice to say, wages in the USVI's tend to be anywhere between 15% to 25% lower than they are for comparable jobs back on the mainland. So the best way to estimate what your earning potential might be in the USVI's is to take your mainland based salary and reduce it by 15% to 20%. This will give you a good indication as to what you'd earn if you worked in that same type of job for the same number of hours with a similar company in the USVI's.
Now, if you change careers and work in a field where you have little or no experience then you'll probably be earning much less than you do now.
Do people in the USVI's earn $10 to $15/hour - sure. Some earn more and others earn less. There are so many variables that govern one's salary that it's very difficult to give precise numbers.
You may very well both be "hard-working, friendly, dependable and reasonably intelligent people totally open to any available positions" but that doesn't necessarily translate into an immediate position at the higher range of the pay scale. No offense, but almost every person looking for a job (anywhere) thinks they are "hard working, dependable, etc." It isn't until you've actually prove that to your employer that those traits will result in higher earnings.
Posted : July 2, 2015 2:49 pm
could not have said it better afriend
Posted : July 2, 2015 4:38 pm
