I just looked at Wake County again, and the wages are a less than I expected. Starting at $11.62 to $24.45.
Is that a decent wage in Raleigh?
Some will tell you to that it's okay to accept lower pay in an area with a lower cost of living. You have to be careful. I saw Charleston's starting medic pay listed at a rate of 38k to start, up to 44k after six months and a promotion to crew chief, with a top out of 68k after ten years or so. I thought that would be a liveable wage in the Deep South. Not the case. Housing was cheaper. Everything else was the same, or more expensive (I came from NYC). Groceries were no different, gas was marginally cheaper, gym memberships were the same, clothing was the same, so was dining. Services were actually more expensive. car repairs were unreasonable and by the book regarding hourly rate, my wife paid way more to get her nails and hair done.
I don't know if you come from a system that works only 40 or 42 hours a week on average, but most systems in the Southeast work a 24/48 with no kellys, for an average 56 hour workweek. That means that I was only making 11 something an hour myself to get that yearly quoted salary of 38k. That means that when you do OT, it's only 16 to 17 dollars/hr. If you were working a 40 hour week, you would be getting around 20/hr to get that 38k, and your OT would be around 30/hr. Big difference, huh? So, in addition to the low pay, you're literally getting less bang for your buck when doing OT as well. You're getting screwed both ways. Be sure and factor that in when calculating your cost of living.
Furthermore, you have to consider retirement. Let's say you get a defined benefit (pension) of 50% average of your highest three years of compensation. What's more, 50% of 50k, or 50% of 100k? This detail is arguably the most important when comparing cost of living and salary, since that's what you're locked in for, for the rest of your life. You can always relocate from an expensive area to a cheaper one after retirement, with your larger pension benefit. That's how us New Yorkers ruined FL.
Lastly, see if your prospective employer has a DROP, also called a TERI in SC. This is where you retire, lock in your final pension benefit, then continue to work for a few more years, getting your pension checks deposited into a deferred comp acccount while you still draw your regular salary. You're double dipping, and mathematically, it doesn't cost the employer anything extra, at least in my county. Everybody's happy.
That's huge! We have FF's getting an extra 190k added to their deferred comp in their three years of the DROP. We have Captains and BC's geting upwards of 250K. We pay full price for our health insurance post retirement, so that DROP money, properly invested, provides income to pay for the insurance.
Lastly again, be wary of depts that pay a generous starting salary. More often than not, they're paying that much to direct your attention away from any number of undesireable qualities of the dept. Look at FDNY, the NYPD, and to a lesser extent, FDNY EMS. A quick search will show you their salary progression. Their starting pay is around half of what they top out at. The biggest jump is at the five year mark, when they top out. This low starting pay is to allow higher compensation for the more tenured employees. Most people leave in the first five years. This is a wise financial strategy, IMO.
