How low wages continue to hamper South Dakota workforce
“Identifying new opportunities will generate high-paying jobs and build an economy to bolster South Dakota’s business environment for the next generation for a better life, she said. Striving to get ahead For those at the lower end of the wage scale in South Dakota, basic survival takes commitment and fortitude.Robin Baldwin of Sioux Falls is a Michigan native who moved to South Dakota in 1993 to be closer to her mother. Armed with a high school degree and one year of college, she worked several years as a waitress before getting married and staying home to raise her three children and another unrelated child whose mother was murdered.She spent eight years as a stay-at-home mother before a divorce forced her to reenter the workplace. Baldwin sought help by getting job skills and placement assistance through two intensive programs run by Dress for Success Sioux Falls. The nonprofit group provides women with the attire, job skills, mentoring, financial literacy training and emotional support to find and keep a good job and has clients that range in age from 18 to 78, said Lori Strasburg, a program manager at the group.With that training, Baldwin, 45, landed a job at a veterinary office in Sioux Falls as a receptionist and a full-time wage of $10 an hour, or about $21,000 a year.”