So I guess we rank #1 in Small Business . . . compared to who?
Sioux Falls has been named the nation’s top city for small businesses, according to a ranking from the website B2B Reviews.
But this part really made me scratch my head;
Mean hourly wage: $27.02
Now that is medium, so basically taking the wages of ALL employees at a small business including management and owners and coming up with an average. The average worker in small businesses in Sioux Falls probably make around $18-$20 if they are lucky.
$27.02 is the mean hourly wage for workers in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota metropolitan area, as of May 2023. This is lower than the national average of $31.48.
These reports never make much sense to me.
“$27 an hour?”…. “Say, Alice, what are we still doing at John Morrell?”…..
Let’s see, if you make $27.02 per hour and work 40 hours per week for a full year, that would be a gross income of $56,201.60, Now, after federal payroll taxes of about 14%, that gives one with such an hourly wage about $48,333.38 a year in net income, then divided by 12, which comes out to $4027.78 per month. Wow! that’s some good news because, with that kind of monthly income, I think a person could live in one of those $1700 a month basic apartments that developers like to build in this town and one like the one Beck’s son most likely lives in with his gross $89,000+ per year city salary. But now the question is: How many people do you really know who are making $27 an hour in Sioux Falls?
Also, I believe the industry standard when qualifying someone for a mortgage is that their monthly house payment that includes taxes and insurance, cannot be more than 29% of their gross. So, $56,201.60 divided by 12 is $4683.67 per month, and 29% of that each month would be $1358.21, which means by industry standards you really cannot afford that $1700 apartment, but signing that lease will be much easier than getting a mortgage at $56,201.60 per year gross, however (Isn’t that nice of the developers, huh?). Which then begs the question, what kind of house could you buy with that kind of gross income in Sioux Falls and, let’s say, with like $10,000 down and a 6.75% interest rate over 30 years. Well, the answer to that question, thanks to my handy little mortgage calculator, is $1365 per month for a $200,000 home. Wow! I think we did it, but the only problem with this answer is that now you need to go find a home for only $200,000 in Sioux Falls that you like, has a safe neighborhood, and no serious repairs that need to be done to it.
Because, this city promotion isn’t just asking married couples to move to Sioux Falls, is it? Cuz, with married folks, who both work, the numbers are more workable, but aren’t marriages trending downward?
( and Woodstock adds: “Say, what if I got one of those Asian or Ukrainian wives they advertise out of the back pages of some of those magazines, would that help me any in Sioux Falls?”……
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