[B]urton, the snowboard equipment and clothing company based in Vermont, has paid moving expenses for more than 50 people in the last three years as it seeks to fill its jobs in IT, product development, marketing, engineering and design.
So the company was a supporter when state lawmakers looked this winter at renewing reimbursements for people who move to the state to work. On Friday, the House and Senate approved a workforce development bill that includes nearly $2 million for various new attraction or training initiatives.
On Jan. 1, the state started reimbursing people up to $10,000 if they move to Vermont to take remote jobs. New next year, under H.533, is a program that will reimburse workers up to $5,000 in some areas of the state and $7,500 in places where workers are needed most. Acknowledging that employers cite the worker shortage as one of their greatest hurdles to growth, the new program is for people who take jobs within Vermont.
Even if the new workers arrive with a job in mind, the program will help Vermont companies, said Justin Worthley, senior vice president of human resources at Burton, which has 400 employees in Burlington.
“Maybe they’ll have a spouse with them who is looking for a position,” Worthley said. “Anything and everything the state is doing to get a better workforce base in the state is positive. I think this is pretty brilliant strategy.”
So far, 33 people have moved to Vermont to take jobs through the remote worker program, said Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor and a strong supporter of the measure. Through the friends and family who accompanied those workers, the state now has 87 new residents, she said – nine of them families with school-age children. Clarkson said those who were asked about salaries reported they make between $50,000 and $100,000 annually.
The average award was $3,700. Applications are still coming in, but the state has tapped out its fund for reimbursements until July 1, when another $125,000 will be available for the program.
The new worker program was an initiative created by Gov. Phil Scott’s administration last year after the remote worker program generated thousands of enquiries. In his FY2020 budget, the governor called for spending $1 million in the coming year to attract more people to help reverse Vermont’s population decline.
The measure that came out of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs contains $1.95 million for the actual incentives, as well as another $225,000 in marketing funds that can also be used for incentives if necessary.
Anyone who moves to Vermont to take a Vermont job for any length of time would qualify for reimbursement of some moving expenses. People who move to areas where the labor shortage is most extreme, including the White River Junction, Burlington, and Montpelier areas, will be eligible for up to $7,500 in reimbursements.
Only one reimbursement is allowed per household, and people won’t be able to move in and out of the state to apply for more than one reimbursement.
“We’ll keep records as far as that is concerned,” said Economic Development Commissioner Joan Goldstein.
But there are some limits. The new worker incentive is only available to people who take jobs that pay at least 160 percent of the minimum wage in most of the state, which is $17.24 per hour. In areas with lower wages or higher unemployment, they must make 140 percent of the minimum wage to qualify. The Vermont minimum wage is $10.78 per hour; 140 percent of that is just over $15 per hour.
Lawmakers who oppose the move-to-Vermont reimbursements have argued that the money would be better spent on Vermonters who are already in the state. Sens. John Rodgers, D-Orleans; Chris Pearson, P-Chittenden, Anthony Pollina, P-Washington, voted against the conference committee’s version of H.533. It passed unanimously in the House, and it now goes to the governor for his signature.
“The remote worker thing has gotten some good publicity, and I think it has probably drawn some good people here,” Rodgers said. “But I still feel that we have a lot of really bright kids who are leaving the state to make more money. We need to do more to take care of our own. “
Clarkson countered that Vermont spends nearly $120 million annually on scholarships and tuition for Vermonters, and more than $50 million on workforce development training.
“We need people here because we need to grow our revenue,” she said. “This is building our revenue base, and we think in a constructive way.”
Nobody questions the publicity value of the remote worker program, which when it was launched last summer generated a flood of news stories and social media posts, and thousands of inquiries about moving to Vermont. The worker shortage is creating problems in many areas of the U.S., and other states and cities have since looked into launching similar programs.
To Worthley, of Burton, the educational impact of the programs is the biggest part of the appeal.
Worthley said he has cousins in the Boston area who ski and snowboard in Vermont.
“I’ve talked to them: ‘Why don’t you look at jobs in Vermont?’” Worthley said. “They just laugh at me; they’re like, ‘There are no jobs in Vermont.’”
The remote worker program is one way of showing people they can live in Vermont and work elsewhere, Worthley said.
“The marketing piece of this is really smart,” he said. “Vermont needs to start talking about more than beer and maple syrup and cows.”
