TMT Jobs

Another odd and somewhat misinformed idea popped up in several comments about the potential TMT project...

The small number of long-terms jobs created by the telescope will be insignificant and will filled by mainlanders, not Hawaiians.
- Comment by Treeza on the Honolulu Advertiser Website

I have heard this one before and it is jarringly wrong in face of the reality I see around me every day. On the big telescopes more than half of the crew keeping us on-sky are local, many having grown up in the islands. One of our crew just took a vacation to the mainland, for the first time in his life! These numbers are rough, just based on my quick perusal of the room at our morning meeting. But very few of the people present were "mainlanders".

It is true that many of the specialists hired by high tech endeavors here in Hawai'i are imported into the state. I should know, I am one of them, moving to the Big Island to fill a job at the observatory. Moving an employee across the ocean is expensive, tens of thousands of dollars in relocation expenses. Employers have a big financial incentive to avoid this expense and usually attempt to hire local first. Thus only the technical and scientific positions are even considered for relocation benefits.

Most of the employees here are not technical specialists, only a few are engineers or scientists. The backbone of the organization are secretaries, electricians, welders, technicians, accountants and mechanics, all of the people that keep a large organization functioning. Unlike what many would expect, an observatory is not an ivory tower enclave of scientists, the reality is a very industrial environment with much the same type of people found on a construction site or oil rig.

I have also found the observatory to show the influence of this island culture brought to it by the local employees, there is a sense of ohana that is often absent in mainland organizations. People take care of each other and everyone is treated well. The pay does differ dramatically by position, no surprise there, but I suspect usually above what other employers on the island pay. Benefits are very good, engineer or janitor, we all have the same benefits package! The observatories bring high quality employment to the community, showing the complete falsehood of the sentiment expressed in statements like you see above.

All of this does not even begin to address the secondary benefits of the good paying jobs an observatory represents in the community. Every one of those employees must rent or buy a home, buy groceries, get their car fixed, and send their children to school. To support the telescopes all manner of goods and services are needed, from printing and shipping to buying bathroom supplies. The observatory supports hundreds of employees that are not on their payroll. This is money spent in the community, not exported as profits to some distant country.

I have not even considered the impact of constructing these great machines or the increased revenues to the county and state tax coffers. The benefits of a large telescope to a small island economy are enormous and without the vastly greater impacts the alternative industry of tourism inflicts.