Garcia: Valley firms should pay their workers more

PHARR, Texas – Employers in the Rio Grande Valley could help the economy and move people out of poverty if they just paid a little bit more in wages to their workers. 

This is the view of Mark E. Garcia, executive vice president of McAllen Economic Development Corporation. Garcia brought up the subject at a recent healthcare forum hosted by Workforce Solutions and held at the Pharr One Center. It was titled, “Healthcare Sector Partnership 2024 – Bridging Gaps in the Healthcare Industry.”

Garcia was on a panel with four other economic development and foundation leaders in the RGV. Before the EDCs and Foundations Panel there were two other panels: an Employer Panel and an Educator Panel.

Garcia said it was “kind of unfortunate” that those on the employer panel did not stick around to hear from those on the EDC panel.

“I wish they were here… (because) we need to look at what we are paying. Bottom line, that is what drives everything,” Garcia said.

“We can train people all day long and you can’t say the people we are training down here are any less trained than people in San Antonio or Austin and Houston.”

Garcia continued: “We do a great job at training people but there is always this mentality down here on the border that (as) we are on the border, we can pay less. There is that stigma. 

“You can’t tell me that… people being hired in San Antonio are any better educated than people here. You just can’t. In fact, I would argue the opposite.”

Garcia gets involved in hiring workers when McAllen EDC helps bring new companies to the region. He said these companies have the most issues with entry-level and mid-level positions. He says often workers are faced with a “take it or leave it” choice.

“The market always dictates. And who drives the market? The employers do. So, we need to look at that and say, are we paying what we need to pay?”

Garcia gave an example, citing the hiring of handlers in a logistics operation. “There is a difference between paying $13 an hour and getting zero resumes and 50 cents more and getting four (resumes) on the same day. That is the difference.”

Garcia added: “So, it is not always a shortage of employees. It is, what are we paying? Do we need to revisit our budgets? Yes. Do we need to look at other funding opportunities? Yes. But we all need to look at it and see what we can do to change the wages because I guarantee you, we are going to keep training people and they are going to be going someplace else because it is there, it is in the data. They get paid almost double for the same position someplace else as we see here. So, there has got to be a change and thought in the mentality of what we are offering in our area.”

Later, when it came to a Q&A, there was a response to Garcia’s analysis. It came from Laura Disque, CEO of Rio Grande Regional Hospital. Disque was the only panelist from the Employers Panel to stick around to hear what those on the EDCs and Foundations Panel had to say. 

“As an employer, I just want to address your (Garcia’s) comment regarding pay wages. Because it is something we face constantly as employers, especially in the healthcare industry where we have to compete with other healthcare systems,” Disque said.

“But what lacks, sometimes, is the whole package. People are looking at, what are we going to get for those hours, that rate per hour. And they don’t look at the whole package. What else am I getting? What other benefits am I getting? What healthcare benefits, what 401, what is my future going to be if I make this investment?”

Disque said employees need to pay attention to the whole benefits package because “five or ten years goes quickly.” 

Disque continued: “What we are seeing is, people are just saying, what are you going to give per hour? That 50 cents will make a decision yet there is no equity. They are not building anything in those five or ten years.”

MEDC’s Garcia responded to Disque’s comments.

“Very true. In fact, with this younger generation, what we are seeing is they really don’t care about the overall benefits, they just want look at that base pay. Unfortunately, that is the case. It is one of those give and takes,” Garcia said.

“As they get older, they pay more attention to the overall benefits as they build their families and so forth. Those are things we need to look at.”

One of the biggest benefits that can be added to a remuneration package, Garcia argued, is day care. Though he did accept there is a cost associated with it that employers must bear.

‘Day care is going to bring those employees in and keep them there. The majority of our workers have children. So that is something critical and something to worry about. Not only affordability but the access. I guarantee you that is going to be a huge benefit going forward to retain employees.”

Adam Gonzalez, CEO of the Council for South Texas Economic Progress, was also a panelist on the CEO Panel. Gonzalez said Garcia and Disque were right on target. “The benefits are something our young employees really do not consider,” he said.

Gonzalez said when his children grew up, they went off to places like San Antonio, Austin and Houston. “I told my children you are getting 75 percent more pay in Austin, but the cost of living is 79 percent. So, you just lost four percent of your income, just by moving five hours up the road.”

Gonzalez added: “I think it is critical we educate our students… about financial literacy, about decision making and things like that.”

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