Letter to the Editor: Salary survey creates questions

The first sentence in Springfield Business Journal’s July 16 page two story, “Bureau of Labor Statistics releases compensation survey,” left me with two questions.

How did the survey come up with the average hourly pay of $15.18 in the Springfield area, and where do I go to get that kind of wage?

My job is to find employment for people, and I truly could not believe the article I was reading. Did they mix in doctors and lawyers and other high paying professions? 

Take a survey of people who are employed at the mall, at factories, in telemarketing, in retail, at restaurants, at gas stations, at hospitals – with the exception of registered nurses, at nursing homes, in security, at hotels … and you would conclude that $15.18 per hour is not the average wage for Springfield. These people work very hard to earn an honest wage and do it with much less.

I think the article is very misleading and I just do not buy into what BLS is putting out. 

I enjoy reading SBJ as a reliable source of information concerning the greater Springfield metropolitan area, but this article really got me. I simply do not believe this particular article is accurate.

—Rose Bruffett, Alpha House of Springfield Inc.