San Diego’s rising minimum wage has pushed Competitive Edge Research & Communications, a prominent local political consulting and polling firm, to move its call center with about 75 jobs to Texas, said Chief Executive John Nienstedt.

“We’re moving the call center to El Paso because California has become inhospitable to (telephone) interviewing jobs,” Nienstedt said. “Rather than moving it offshore, I wanted to move my call center somewhere in the United States.”

In June, San Diego city voters increased the city’s minimum wage from $10 to $10.50 per hour, rising to $11.50 on Jan. 1. Meanwhile, California is scheduled to lift its wage floor to $15 an hour by 2022, a level San Diego may or may not surpass with its inflation-adjusted formula.

Economists have debated how the legislation will affect overall employment. Some say many thousands will lose jobs throughout the state, especially among industries that compete with surrounding states, while other academics forecast that higher wages will spur more local spending, causing employers to add more jobs than they cut.


Competitive Edge, which conducts research in markets across the U.S., has been based in San Diego since 1987 and has established a reputation for accurate political telephone polling and market research. Local corporate clients have ranged from the Padres and SeaWorld to the Red Cross.

El Paso offered generally lower business costs, yet California’s rising wage floor was the deciding factor in moving the company’s call center, Nienstedt said Tuesday.

He said the company already pays many of its telephone interviewers $11 per hour or more, and some of those who transfer may keep their pay level. The move affects about 75 workers, or all but 10 of the company’s total.

“My employees who will move over there will get a 50 percent pay raise in a sense, because cost of living is lower there,” he said. “If they were making $11 here, that’s the equivalent of closer to $18 in El Paso.”


Still, Nienstedt said he expects relatively few to take the offer, and replacement workers will earn “ a lower rate.” Texas has adopted the $7.25 federal minimum wage.

He said he bids against competitors with even lower costs in call centers situated in Costa Rica and other nations.

Competitive Edge plans to keep its headquarters staff in San Diego, probably moving to rented offices downtown. The company owns its 4th Avenue building, which is on the market, Nienstedt said.


dan.mcswain@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1280 ▪Twitter: @McSwainUT

UPDATES:

6:02 p.m. This article was updated with additional information.