'Balancing Act'

'Balancing Act'

HUMAN RESOURCES by Janet Leiser | Senior Editor

Tampa attorney and HR consultant Eduardo A. Suarez-Solar, chief executive of Integrated Employer Resources, says more and more lower-wage workers are migrating east of Interstate 75 in an effort to find affordable housing.

With beachfront property selling for as much as $800 a square foot and housing near the interstate costing an average of $200 to $300 a square foot, two questions should be asked, he says. How are employees who make an hourly wage of $10 to $12 supposed to live? How are employers going to afford hiring the staff they require to support their business needs?

Some lower-wage workers are driving 45 minutes to an hour each way to work. With the rising cost of fuel, Suarez-Solar says employees are likely to take lower-paying jobs near their homes rather than make the costly commute. So how do employers near the beaches staff their businesses to support their customers when many are unable to pass along the costs to the customers?

Many businesses are lowering profit expectations, passing along a portion of the cost to their customers, as well as shifting a greater portion of the benefits cost to their employees, he says.

Suarez-Solar, who previously owned a manufacturing company that employed more than 220 people, says the situation creates a "difficult balancing act for local employers as well as their employees."

Manufacturers, whose competitors are in lower-cost states, find it difficult to pass the entire cost to their customers because they could find themselves at a serious competitive disadvantage by losing business to cheaper out-of-state competitors. Businesses unable to compete will be forced to look at relocating to states such as Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, where the cost of doing business is less.

When Florida's business tax base drops, authorities will feel pressured to raise taxes elsewhere to make up the difference, Suarez-Solar says. As coastal businesses begin to pay even more business and property taxes, pricing pressures will rise, potentially driving away more customers and further hurting Florida's economy.

Suarez-Solar says employers are bouncing around the idea of a new variation of the "old company towns" of the 1950s to help employees with housing.

In the past, a company owned the property and rented to its employees. He says a new idea is that a group of companies would buy land at a better price, with tax incentives from government, and rent to employees at a reduced price.