[iamdave]

many firms here take advantage of that to an insulting degree

I found that to be the case throughout a lot of the Blue Ridge area, when I lived there. To a greater extent, unless you're heading to larger metropolis areas like Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Columbia or Charleston, what you've said is 100% true throughout much of the Southeast. Outside of larger cities, firms don't like to pay much.

It's why I hightailed it to Austin two years ago and haven't looked back except holiday visits to family.

[rwg]

It's even worse if you're in a small college town — you're competing against fresh grads who will work for pizza and Coke, as well as not-so-fresh grads who will take a huge pay cut just to return to party town.

http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/314846