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Maine Debates the Status of Call Center Jobs in the State

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

Are call center jobs good jobs or just a step above flipping burgers? That’s the question many residents are asking in the state of Maine as the number of call centers increases there.

The Bangor Daily News recently reported that the state has added nearly 2,000 call center jobs over the past five years, according to employment data from the Maine and U.S. Departments of Labor.

Firms such as TD Bank, L.L. Bean, Carbonite, Great Falls Marketing and nonprofit Consolidated Transportation Services all have call center services in Maine.

With the rise in call center work, the pay also has increased; the average weekly pay for call center workers in the state currently stands at $638, up from $456 in 2007. The call center industry in Maine paid $152 million in wages in 2012, up from $69 million in 2007 according to the Bangor Daily News.

But not everyone is sure that shift in employment is a good development.

“Marketing jobs, telephone jobs don’t pay very well and they say they have access to benefits, but they don’t provide benefits,” complained former Lewiston mayor Larry Gilbert recently, according to the newspaper. “We need to drive jobs in here from outside that pay good living wages.”

In response to the opening of a recent call center in Lewiston by Argo Marketing Group, resident Linda Sherwood echoed this concern.

“I know of many former employees who could reveal what kind of marketing is taking place at this company,” Sherwood wrote on Facebook (News - Alert). They “send their poor employees home in tears because of how they are trained to treat their callers,” she suggested.

The facts don’t seem to bear out this sentiment, however, even if for some there’s still a stigma to call center jobs.

A survey of call center companies in the Lewiston-Auburn area of Maine conducted by the Sun Journal showed that almost all call centers paid above the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Most offered benefits, too, including health insurance and paid time off.

The new Argo Marketing call center features a rooftop patio, employees-only brewpub and a 6,000-gallon saltwater aquarium, for instance, belying the concern that call center workers perform their work in demoralizing conditions.

Argo also helps cover health insurance.

“These are the benefits and the health insurance that we aren’t providing to our workers,” joked Argo CEO Jason Levesque.

Carolyn Beem of L.L. Bean also takes umbrage at the notion that its call center jobs are low-level, unimportant work that is not supported properly by the company.

“You really don’t want just anybody answering the phones or taking the calls,” pointed out Beem. “This is often the first contact a customer is making. This is the face of your business, so you want them to be a good worker and a good representative.”