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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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No wonder we’re broke in Hawaii
Honolulu is the fourth-worst U.S. city in which to build personal wealth, a term that for many, is an oxymoron.
Rich man, poor man
Top 5 cities for building personal wealth
1. Plano, Tex.
2. Aurora, Colo.
3. Omaha, Neb.
4. Minneapolis
5. Albuquerque, N.M.
Bottom 5 cities for building personal wealth
1. New York, N.Y.
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Los Angeles
4. Honolulu
5. San Francisco
Source: Salary.com Inc.
On the Net: svi.salary.com
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The news from Massachu-setts-based
Salary.com Inc. will not surprise those for whom there is always too much month at the end of the money.
Salary.com developed its Salary Value Index to demonstrate the value of salaries from one market to the next.
It looks at local salaries, the cost of living and unemployment rates, and "qualitative features (were added) to this year's survey," said spokesman Bill Keeler. They included cities' diversity of industry, populations' education levels, proximity to post-secondary institutions, percentage of population below the poverty level and median travel time to work.
"The end result of this analysis is a list in which the most favorable cities offer the largest difference between pay and costs," said Bill Coleman, Salary.com chief compensation officer, in a statement.
The qualifying factors "helped to further refine the list by highlighting the employment strength of cities," Coleman said.
So, Honolulu may be weighed down by dependence on one industry -- tourism. Remember when Hawaii tried to convince people it was the high-tech state?
The worst city for wealth-building is New York, N.Y. Fifth-worst is San Francisco, but your heart mightn't be the only thing left behind. One's shirt might also be lost.
Honolulu has ranked low in each of the three Salary Value Index studies, though its methodology changed since the first two, in 2005 and 2006. No study was done last year.
The previous rankings included 188 cities and NYC was the worst in each. Honolulu ranked 171 in 2005 and at No. 186 in 2006.
Only 69 cities were ranked this year and we still managed a bottom-five mention.
Our bottom-dwelling neighbors are typically the most costly in which to live, where pay isn't proportionately increased to meet those expenses, according to Salary.com.
Korea-Hawaii portal online
As long as we're addicted to tourism, companies might as well do all they can to attract visitor revenue.
Case in point, a new Korean-language Web portal about Hawaii, launched by Honolulu-based PacRim Marketing Group Inc.
The site, www.myhawaii.kr, quietly went live in mid-May and is among the top five Hawaii search sites at Google Korea, according to the company.
"Our clients are creating Web pages and entire Web sites in the Korean language and needed a stronger driver to attract visitors to their sites," said Dave Erdman, president.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com