WEST MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Salaries for non-tipped positions at Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis will now start at $15 an hour.
The welcomed news comes as Southland looks to resume normal operation.
Tomeka Banis is a security officer and is one of hundreds of employees seeing their pay boost to at least $15 an hour. She got the good news while she was off last week and just couldn’t believe it.
“That’s all I can say is, wow because I been here seven years and this is highest pay that we have gotten,” she said. “I had to actually go to my supervisor to make sure that the news was true.”
Trennis Ward, who works in environmental services and has worked at Southland for two years, says the increase is much needed.
Southland announced the starting rate for positions in security, food and beverage, housekeeping, cashiering and player service jobs.
The majority of employees at Southland are from Crittenden County, followed by Shelby County and then Mississippi.
“As Southland does well, we want to pass that back on to our associates here,” said Dave Wolfm general manager at Southland. He says the rate increase was planned to take affect last year, but the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
“Of course we had to close down for a couple of months and we had to put everything on pause,” he said.
Wolf said 400 current employees will benefit, and another couple of hundred more when operations return to normal capacity.
In the meantime Southland continues with a multi-million dollar expansion project that includes a larger casino floor and a 21-story hotel. They plan to open the casino in the first quarter of 2022, and that means Southland will be hiring more employees.
“We’re going to hire an additional four to five hundred people in the upcoming year. So, we’ll probably start hiring sometime in December or January,” Wolf said.
Learn more about job openings at Southland
Jobs seekers can apply for Southland positions online at https://careers.delawarenorth.com/southland-casino .
Job seekers can also apply by completing an application in Southland Casino Racing’s Human Resources department between 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (Monday – Friday). Additional information is available in Southland Casino Racing’s Human Resources department or call 870-400-4820.
