Too Expensive

I would love to know what the problem is with the job market and the salary in Highlands County.
I have been looking for employment for over a month now, which I have since discovered is one of the hardest things to accomplish. Someone needs to do something about the wages in this town, or lack thereof.

I was offered $7 an hour to be a receptionist at a local doctor's office, with half of the medical insurance being paid it would cost me $220 per month out of pocket if I accepted the job. With the houses and other expenses priced the way they are, how can anyone - single or not - afford to live on $7 per hour?

Half of the businesses in Highlands County do not offer health insurance. That's appalling! The highest paying jobs in Highland's County are the hardest to get. There is no public transportation, so unless you ride a bike to work in the rain and heat, how can you afford a mortgage payment, a vehicle payment, gas, insurance, health insurance, electricity, some kind of telephone service, and food on a salary like $7 per hour?

What is going on in Highland's County? We are coming up in the world with these new stores and restaurants, but if the salary doesn't move up like the town is, those new stores and restaurants will be sitting collecting cob webs like half of the ghost town shopping plazas in the county.

Someone needs to change things here. It is very sad to think that there are families and children that are living in poverty because a business owner, doctor, or owner of a corporation would rather build a million dollar home and buy new cars each year than see someone better themselves and not have to work three jobs to raise their family. Statistically Highland's County has 3.6 percent in unemployment. Let's be real. It's more than that!

The price of houses has gone up, as well as property. That is why nothing is selling here. Who can afford it? I cannot imagine a single mother surviving on the wages paid in this county. It's sad and humiliating. People who are only working to have health insurance paid to them are taking jobs that someone in real financial turmoil desperately need. It doesn't matter to them what the salary is, all they want is insurance. That's not fair to the younger and middle-aged crowd who is trying to better themselves, trying to raise a family, trying to contribute to their household.

Please, someone do something here. We need to fight for higher wages and insurance.

Lindsey Cooper

Sebring