MISSOULA (AP) -- The nearly $18 million economic development package offered to DirecTV to bring 800 call center jobs here provides $22,500 per job, more than the $19,760 a full-time employee making the $9.50 an hour starting wage would earn in a year.

Dick King, head of the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp., said it is a generous package, but it's worth it.

''Our issue is not unemployment, but underemployment,'' King said. ''We need to get the right company to push up from the bottom. I think this is it.''

DirecTV received consideration for the package -- which includes low interest loans, grants and money for training -- because of its benefits, despite the fact that its starting wage is below the county's median wage of $12.06.

The average health care plan costs $7,000 per year. DirecTV pays $6,000 and has a low deductible.

''It's a good health care plan,'' King said, adding that the company's retirement benefits and tuition reimbursement benefits are also good.

The largest amount of money the company receives is a $9.2 million loan from the Montana Board of Investments to Missoula County, to be used to build a $12 million building. The note will be repaid over 25 years. For the first 10 years, the loan payments will come from lease payments from DirecTV. After that, the company could repay the rest of the loan and buy the building, or renew the lease for another 10 years.

King estimates the lease payments will be about $500,000 a year, with that money being a direct credit against state corporate income taxes.

In this case, with the jobs DirecTV plans to create, the loan interest will likely be reduced from 7 percent to 4.5 percent.

''That's an incentive for job creation,'' King said.

The company also received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Agency, a $400,000 grant from the Montana Community Development Block Grant program and $900,000 in tax increment financing, raised from the sale of bonds based on the increased taxable value of a parcel of land at the Missoula County Development Park.

The Commerce Department is giving the company $4.75 million for work training over 10 years. The company would also receive an additional $600,000 from federal and local sources for training replacement workers.

DirecTV expects to break ground on the building this month and have the facility open this summer.

Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com