WAGE SURVEY TO BE CONDUCTED HERE

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- If you're a bartender in a small area of Southwest Missouri, you can figure on a salary range of $4.25 to $5.25 an hour. That's in addition to tips.

If you're a bus driver, you may be in the range of $420 to $520 for a 40-hour week.

A financial manager may command from $16 to $32 an hour.

Machine assemblers and operators, welders, cutters, and many other manufacturing positions will range from $6 to $10.

This is just a sample of information which was provided by a recent wage survey conducted by the Research and Analysis Section of the Missouri Division of Employment Security in Jasper and Newton counties in Southwest Missouri.

"This is just a small portion of the information we can provide with our wage surveys," said Holly Harber, a research analyst with the Missouri Division of Employment Security. "The report includes wage information on individual positions across each industry: service, retail/wholesale, transportation/communication/utilities, finance/insurance/real estate, manufacturing, and health care."

Harber was in Cape Girardeau last week to discuss a wage survey for Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties.

"We have conducted surveys in most areas of Missouri over the past three years, including some areas in the Bootheel," she said. "What we plan to do here is to include the three counties Cape, Perry and Bollinger in one survey, then separate Cape County for a one-county survey."

She explained that surveys would be submitted to every business and industry which has more than five employees. She stressed that all responses are confidential.

"If an occupation is reported by only one company, we won't include that occupation in the report to assure confidentiality," she said.

Harber met with Cape Girardeau Personnel Association members to discuss the proposed survey. She has a degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla, and a master's in business administration from UM-Columbia, has been with the department as a research analyst almost three years.

"We receive requests for wage information almost every day," she said. "The information we compile is designed to meet the needs of career counselors, vocational educators, planners, economic developers and others who need a general idea of wage rates for various occupations."

She explained that in most instances industry was cooperative in taking part in the survey. We also work with the local job service office, and the Chamber of Commerce, she added.

"In the Southwest Missouri survey almost 50 percent of those contacted responded to the survey," she said. "We sent out surveys to 668 employers, each with five or more employees, and 311 responded."

Joplin was the largest town in the survey area, at just over 40,000 population.

"The report we published contained data on 214 occupations," said Harber. "There could be more in this area."