Living the Low Wage Life

Fortunately for myself and for my family, I have not had to experience the hardship of low wage employment. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I have never had a real job, but thankful at the same time to know that my household is one that does not require youth employment to keep itself afloat. Both of my parents earn a stable living, providing the family with the upper middle class lifestyle to which we have all become accustomed. I am aware that I sound like a spoiled child without much financial hardship, and am ashamed of it, but that does not mean that I have not had my fair share of encounters with members of the low-wage lifestyle.

My mother has worked for Kaiser Permanente, the health corporation, as a Cytogeneticist for almost 25 years now. Ever since childhood, I have visited her at her laboratory, given tours of the main hospital to relatives as if I ran the place, and overall have spent a good deal of time on the Kaiser property as a youth. My father had been in and out of the hospital for several years, so I can attest to having a pretty good understanding of the workings of the medical machines we fondly call hospitals. Aside from the extremely wealthy doctors walking the corridors, the nurses and the clerical staff gracing the information desks, is the janitorial staff and clean-up crew that serve the sanitation and cleanliness aspect of hospital life.

These workers have, as you can imagine, an extremely filthy job to perform. Cleaning up after patients who have gotten physically sick, keeping rooms of violently ill and suffering patients in perfect condition, all the while staying undercover and extremely unnoticeable are a few of their basic tasks. They are much like housekeepers in a hotel, but taken to an extreme.

As imaginable, these workers are not paid what they should be compensated for the grimy work they carry out and the conditions they themselves are put through while performing such tasks - honestly I do not think even being paid a million dollars would encourage me to muster up the strength and stomach to do what these people have to do every day. And with the economic recession, it is saddening to think of the incredible amount of jobs that were lost and for those who were lucky enough to remain employed, the decreases in wage that must have happened.

Nobody seems to really notice these people, though, despite the vital role that they play in the daily routine of the hospital – keeping the place clean, presentable, and up-and-running, more or less. This topic is something I am interested in pursuing, because unlike low-wage working fast food employees or coffee shop baristas, these workers provide a service that we as patients and visiting members actually need for our own basic health and wellbeing. Their physical labor and performance of tasks that most would consider revolting keep us healthy and keep our minds at peace that our loved ones are in an environment that will aid their recovery, rather than encourage increased sickness due to poor recuperation conditions.