7 Days @ Minimum Wage: 15 Million Workers Trapped at or Near Minimum Wage

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/10/29/7-days-minimum-wage-15-million-workers-trapped-at-or-near-minimum-wage/

7 Days @ Minimum Wage: 15 Million Workers Trapped at or Near Minimum Wage

by Mike Hall, Oct 29, 2006

If Mallory McCarty wins a pay raise from her current minimum wage of $5.15 an hour to the $6.85 an hour as called for in a Nov. 7 Ohio ballot initiative, she says she’d finally have some extra money to set aside to learn new skills:

I either hang clothes, cashier, put clothes up or I am a sorter….You stand all day and I get a 45-minute break.

But all that hard work barely covers McCarty’s basic living costs:

I pay $200 every two weeks for rent and food, gas, lights and I have a phone bill…and I have to buy two bus passes to get to work….I have to watch what I spend every check. I’m living pay by pay.

Cleveland resident McCarty, who is the final feature on the video blog (vlog) “7 Days at Minimum Wage,” sponsored by the AFL-CIO and ACORN, is among millions of workers looking to this fall’s election with anticipation as voters in Ohio and five other states vote on ballot initiatives to raise their states’ minimum wage. They also will have the opportunity to send people to Congress who will raise the federal minimum wage.



As comedienne Roseanne Barr notes in the introduction to McCarty’s story:

Fifteen million workers in this country are trapped at or near the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, with no increase in the last 10 years even though Congress voted itself nine pay raises in that time. Remember, Congress is supposed to work for you. What you can do is support the minimum wage movement. We have initiatives to raise the minimum wage on ballots in six states, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio. So go vote “Yes” on Nov. 7.

That’s what McCarty is counting on as a stepping stone out of the minimum wage job trap.

…it’s hard to for me to get by paying my rent and food and stuff. I have to put that first, of course. I don’t have any spending money for myself, to save for a car or college…If I was to get a raise to $6.85, it would help me a lot to save money in the bank.

[NMDemDist2]

1. I'll nominate this try for ya too Steve. and though I rarely post in your

threads I do enjoy reading them so keep it up :bounce:


i asked about unions in my new job and was told most of the employees wouldn't sign. we are paid 30% less than the same workers one county over

stupid stupid and afraid to rock the boat....

[OzarkDem]

2. Lots of folks working minimum wage jobs

as second or third jobs. I worked the holiday season at an area department store several years ago while I was a stay at home mom. I was surprised at the number of people who worked there as a second or third job, many with college degrees. These weren't people who were in debt or living high, they were professionals or blue collar workers who couldn't make ends meet on their day job and had to supplement by working nights.

Others were people who worked two or three jobs most days just to support a family. Most were women.

Its sad to see, it needs to change. A man or woman should be able to put in 40 hours of work a week and be able to pay rent, utilities food and other necessities. It just isn't possible on minimim wage or even at higher wages.

[brentspeak]

3. k & r

:kick:

[BlueJazz]

4. I've said this time and time again on this site. Repugs LIKE the Minimum Wage Low.

I think most Liberals just don't understand this observation.

It's all about self-worth. Republicans have to have a large group of "Peasants"
barely managing to exist so they can assure themselves that they are somehow
Superior to the Poor.
I believe that somewhere in their deep psyche, they know damn well that they have no true
caring or kindness "Feelings" so they have to find some sort of self-worth somewhere in their dark little lives...