STRICTLY BUSINESS: CAPE AREA WAGE AND SALARY SURVEY

During the past year the Midwest area experienced a 3.2 percent increase in wages and salaries, just under the 3.3 increase nationally.

Associated Industries of Missouri, a manufacturers' association, has completed an extensive survey of wages, salaries and benefit practices for businesses in the Cape Girardeau area that indicates salary hikes overall were above the national average.

Seventy-six percent of the 25 employers who participated in the survey reported that salaried employees averaged 4.16 percent salary increases going into 1997, and about 70 percent reported that hourly employees received an average of 3.9 percent pay increases.

In addition to average wages and salaries, the latest AIM survey also indicates some pay practices and company polices.

Drug-alcohol testing

One of the findings is that 68 percent of Cape Girardeau area employers participating in the survey test hourly and salaried employees for alcohol and drug use.

Ninety-two percent reported the existence of a medical insurance plan for hourly employees while all 25 employers reported the existence of medical insurance for salaried employees.

Thirty-six percent of employers say they have a traditional group medical plan for hourly employees. Twenty-four percent use a health maintenance organization plan and 44 percent use a preferred provider organization.

Eighty-four percent has a plan intact to pay for all, or a portion, of the time salaried employees are absent from work for the death of designated relatives. Seventy-six percent reports such a plan for hourly employees.

Vacations: 1 to 8 weeks

Vacation schedules range from one to eight weeks, depending on length of services. Many employers require four years service before giving three weeks of vacation. A fourth of the companies give four weeks of vacation after 10 years. The one eight-week vacation was provided to an employee with 30 years of service.

Forty-eight percent of the survey participants reported that almost 9 percent of their workforces is part time.

The AIM survey for the Cape Girardeau area was conducted in cooperation with the SEMO Personnel Association and the Cape Girardeau Area Personnel Association. A total of 25 companies and organizations participated, including employers with fewer than 25 employees to those with 1,000 or more employees (Procter & Gamble Paper Products).

Also included in the survey participants were the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, University Extension of the Southeast Region, Missouri Division of Employment Security and Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council.

Number of wage categories

The survey reflects average monthly wages and salaries in a number of categories:

Executive-professional -- This portion of the survey reflects salary data on salaried executive occupations in branch or single-plant establishments. This section of the survey includes more than a dozen employees. Listed here are about half of them. Controllers (account managers), from $2,188 to 4,435, average, $3,269; cost accountant, $2,422 to $3,084, average, $2,678; distribution manager, $1,900 to $5,592, average, $3,604; inventory control manager, $2,027 to $3,008, average, $3,387; human resource manager, $1,635 to $3,543, average, $2,634; sales-marketing director, from $2,492 to $5,820, average, $4,037.

Customer service, sales and marketing -- Averages included base salary, commissions and other payments. Customer service representative, from $1,098 to $2,875, average, $1,861; customer service supervisor, from $1,425 to $2,799, average $2,161; sales-marketing representative, from $1,474 to $3,394, average, $2,348.

Office and clerical

Office and Clerical: This section includes 15 categories. Listed here are six of them. Accounts receivable or accounts payable clerk, from $1,067 to $2,147, average, $1,565; general bookkeeper, from $1,300 to $2,147, average, $1,565; general clerk, from $1,204 to $2,168, average, $1,578; data entry clerk, from $910 to $1,264, average, $1,093; receptionist, from $1,052 to $1,277, average, $1,165; general secretary, from $1,298 to $1,863, average, $1,564; executive secretary, from $1,454 to $2,646, average, $2,067.

First-level supervisors: Maintenance supervisors, from $1,655 to $2,906, average, $2,281; production-assembly supervisor, from $1,730 to $2,647, average, $2,216; shipping and receiving supervisor, from $1,790 to $2,587, average, $2,193; warehouse supervisor, from $1,471 to $2,430, average, $1,939.

Professional-engineering and technical personnel: Process-manufacturing engineer, from $1,708 to $3,286, average, $2,925; computer assisted design, from $1,394 to $2,345, average, $1,762.

Skilled trade: Mechanic-maintenance, hourly rate, from $9.07 to $15.62, average, $11.94; tool and die maker, hourly rate from $12.71 ato $16.29, average, $14.71.

Production and inspection

Production and inspection: This section has 14 categories, six are listed here, Class A assembler, hourly rate, from $6.12 to $9.20, average, $7.61; Class A inspector, hourly rate, from $7.12 to $8.96, average, $7.94; machine operator, hourly rate, from $5 to $8.90, average, $6.92; spray painter, hourly rate, from $7.50 to $10.12, average $8.57; Set-up person, hourly rate, from $7.54 to $9.75, average, $8.56; punch press operator, hourly rate, from $8.27 to $9.65, average, $8.87.

Miscellaneous: This category includes a number of workers, including company laborers, shipping clerks, warehousemen and stock keepers, truck drivers and janitors. Here are a few of them, janitor, hourly rate from $4.98 to $7.44, average, $6.45; local delivery truck driver, hourly rate, $6.58 to $13.86, average $10.07; warehouseman-stock keeper, hourly rate from $6.16 to $10.44, average, $8.29.

The annual Wage & Salary Survey is available from the Associated Industries of Missouri, P.O. Box, 1709, Jefferson City, Mo., 65102. Cost and other information available by calling (573) 634-2246.

A business thought

The difference between throwing something away and needing it badly is two days.

GPC looking for new site

Grain Processing Corp. of Muscatine, Iowa, is still looking for an expansion site.

The company, which has been looking at the Paducah, Ky., area for more than a year, has cited two reasons for abandoning plans to construct a $1 billion manufacturing plant that would provide more than 800 jobs on a site off Noble Road in the western part of McCracken County.

Company officials say the area does not produce enough corn and the cost to deliver grain to a western Kentucky site would be an additional 10 to 15 cents a bushel, which add from $2 million to $3 million a year in costs.

The grain processing company produces more than 100 products, including alcohol, poultry feed, starch for the paper industry and a number of other products made from corn.

Although new sites have not been named, speculation is that two sites in Indiana are under consideration -- Washington, east of Vincennes on the White River, and Rockport, east of Evansville, on the Ohio River.

Meanwhile, the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority has submitted a program of its services to the Iowa-based company, and Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association, says the amount of land needed can be obtained in this area.

"We have made this information available to the company," said Robinson.

A giant casino opens

Station Casino Kansas City opened last week in the crowded Kansas City gaming market.

Station is the largest of five casinos in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the second sporting twin boats.

Only three casinos in the country are larger. Station's 140,000 square feet are surpassed by the Foxwoods in Ledyard, Conn., the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.

The casino's 730,000-square-foot total also includes 12 restaurants, a jazz club, with a turn-of-the-century theme and a large fountain.

Other casinos in the Kansas City area are Harrah's North Kansas City, the Argosy Riverside Casino, Boyd Gaming's Sam's Town and Hilton's Flamingo.

Station Casino reported revenues of $467 million and profits of $25 million in the year ended March 31, 1996. The company operates three casinos in Las Vegas and one in St. Charles, Mo.

B. Ray Owen is the business editor of the Southeast Missourian.