Low-Wage Proposal - Michael Adair

Michael Adair

Prof. Bousquet

English Writing in New Media

Research Paper Proposal

10/4/2009

Working Two Low-Wage Jobs

I would like to write my research paper on those individuals that work two low-wage jobs in order to support themselves or their family. I feel as though I have a strong personal connection to this topic due to the fact that not only did I work for 4 years in a low-wage position alongside of several co-workers (some of whom I became close to) who were working two jobs, but also because over the summer I sometimes was working two jobs at the same time. Albeit I had very different motives for working two jobs, but the experience was one I will never forget. Barbara Ehrenreich (Ehrenreich, 41-49) speaks first hand about having two jobs at the same time. She spoke of the difficulty on the worker for working two jobs, and her first hand experience made her argument that much stronger, because she had actually lived it. However, she quickly quit the jobs right after this because it was so hard to deal with. She was doing all of this because she was exploring whether or not it was possible to live off one low-wage job (Ehrenreich, 1), which she found she needed to get another job to help support herself. Now imagine this: a single mother working two jobs in order to support her children and provide a better life for them so that they will not have to work low-wage jobs for the rest of their life. Shipler expresses this problem through examples of Christie and Caroline (Shipler, 39-76). Also, I’d like to explore the effects upon the children of never having their mother/father at home because they are constantly working to provide a better life for their children. Shipler also discusses the poor financial decisions that people have, rich and poor, and the idea that financial planning should be taught in schools (Shipler, 22) which would be an interesting idea to explore. Overall, I think my topic is worthwhile of researching, and I already have some solid ideas/examples from the three books we have read so far.

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.

Growing up in the highest per-capita income town in America, born into a very well off family, I have experienced just about nothing even remotely close to a low wage life. Being poor is something that terrifies me, seeing as I have lived my life with so much having been given to me.
During high school I was required to do very involved forms of community service. In my catholic middle school I did some community service, but that entailed things that were just simply helping out in my community, in which there was no one who was even remotely underprivileged. In high school I worked at a community centre in an urban area a few towns over from mine. I worked with children who had grown up in a world completely different from mine. They had no concept of the levels of security and material goods that I had grown up with.
This was an experience that really opened my eyes up. I had been living in a little stepford wives-esque little gated community that completely sheltered me from people that didn’t have all the benefits of an affluent background.
The closest that I ever got to living a “low wage” life would be recently during the recession. My dad works for a bank, and his job, like many other bankers, was in danger of being cut. As a precaution my family decided that we were going to be taking severe cutbacks on luxury items, in order to save money. This reduced wage lifestyle for me was a real change. Things that I took for granted like high speed internet, 1000+ channels of cable, and my car were all taken away. While I was completely understanding of the situation, it still was shocking to me how much those things had meant to me. How people lived without those “basic necessities” was beyond me, but in time I came to realise that they were just silly extras.
Fortunately I never had had to worry about losing anything more than these silly extras, but some people do have to worry very much about these things every day. While I have trouble dealing with the fact that I no longer was able to watch episodes of Dexter and The Tudors, every week due to my financial situation, there are people that have to deal with the fact that instead of paying for dinner, they are going to have to pay for healthcare.
I worked my first full time job as a caddie. This was at a very posh country club in my town that served as a weekend getaway for the rich who couldn’t make the trip to Nantucket or Cape Cod. While there I worked alongside with other junior high, high school and college students, but also, and more importantly, people that worked this job for a living.
This was an environment that had people who were working for their wellbeing, under people who make obscene amounts of money. It was a very odd and somewhat confusing situation to me. I never knew that people like them existed, and working alongside with them was very interesting and eye opening. This is something that I want to explore; people that work for the extremely rich, yet make a very small wage.

Low Wage Life – Anthony Mejia

Low Wage Life – Anthony Mejia

People all across the nation have all been hit hard by this economy and how it has become hard to buy certain things you took for granted. The word poverty has been used for as long as people lived, and today this word at times has no meaning to some. As people live their daily lives not worrying about anything else except how they are doing, they never notice what people are doing under them in order for them to have the life they are living. Most of these jobs that people do are at times so gruesome that many people who live a good life can not believe what they are doing. Everyone dreams about having a life in the United States as it is portrayed in television of having a house and a family with nice cars in a good neighborhood. However for many this will never become a reality. Many people are born into the slums and “ghetto” of neighborhoods and are trapped from either their peers or by their own government. These people that live their lives in the slums understand that it is much to hard to get out and survive. Most people work two to three jobs only to be able to support their family at the bare minimum. Life seen on television becomes something that the poor want and strive for, however some people may not take the best choices to get there. Drugs have been going around the entire world for many years and are especially found in the poorest sections of America. The selling of drugs becomes a way to get rich fast and be able to get out of the life you are in now. As children grow up seeing people in their own neighborhood driving nice cars with the big rims, those children want that type of lifestyle and eventually follow what they see. Selling drugs becomes an easy way to make money, only having to supply a product for another person and receive money, not having to spend your entire days working hard labor. The drug trade becomes popular because it provided a get away from the slums, it gives you cash money, which you can use, on whatever you please on. The low wage life becomes something they do not want to do, and eventually just go into the drug business, only to live in a life of fear from the government and other people who sell drugs. People living the low wage life are persuaded to go into the life of drugs because of the possibilities of making it to the dream that they have always wanted. They could have the luxuries of fancy cars and nice houses without having to work as hard as they have been. This struggle has been a hard one for many people who live in the poor areas and need a way out.

My Low Wage Life

William Burke- My Low Wage Life

I have been fortunate in many ways, one is to never have really needed to work for low wage, and another is the kind of values my parents instilled in me surrounding money, spending, and aid. I grew up with an echo of “do you really need that?” Though I can see now that I still received much more than most of the world, in comparison to those around me, I prioritized necessity over luxury. In reading Shipler, I could not have agreed more with the numerous people he talked to who were disheartened and troubled by the spending habits of many poor. The idea that Cable TV is something that is now seen a “necessity” over nutritious food, reflects upon the kind of priorities that much of America is growing up with now. I cannot help but feel responsible for this phenomenon. This is not a universal issue; it is an issue due to the relative nature of wealth, and the economic disparity that exists in America.
Though I might be conscious and thoughtful about where and how I spend money, that doesn’t detract from the fact that I still have a wealthy lifestyle. Regardless of how much I might rationalize my spending, the vast majority of it is superfluous in respect to survival. So not only am I hypocritical in my criticism of how many people spend the little money they have, but I am also the cause of this problem. Though admittedly I do not have a perfect life, externally I am practically the poster child for consumerism. I fill the stereotypes you find in advertisements all around America. I cannot say if as an individual I have had much of an impact on anyone, but as in voting, every person counts. More than that, I have spent my middle and high school years at an institution where 1/3rd of the students are on some form of financial aid. Am I responsible for spending decisions and how they go on to prioritize with their money? If our recent readings of Shipler, Ehrenreich, and Schlosser, have conveyed one overwhelming messege, it’s that poverty is everywhere and overwhelming. With so much stacked against you when you’re trying to find a way out of poverty, is seems ludicrous to me that a person could risk that for a need caused by excellent advertising and unrealistic ideals. There is a sad sort of irony here, where I am at the core of perpetuating a problem that I detest.
Again I should examine my own hypocrisy. Though it might seem to me that Cable TV and other similar luxuries might be less important than more nutritious food, I am not in a fair position to make that judgment. It’s been more than a decade since I’ve been without Cable TV, and so there is clearly a draw, one that is not ignored by the less fortunate. In American society there are enormous social pressures, which result in this kind of spending. American consumerism is truly victorious here. We now see people blatantly robbing themselves of their of financial stability because of the very products they hope to someday be able to afford.

My Low Wage Life - Allison

Living a low wage life has never been a struggle for me. Even though, I have had a low wage job life guarding, I have never felt pressure to earn money. I am fortunate enough that I didn’t have to get a job to survive. Instead, I chose to get a summer job to learn responsibility, and save money for college. Growing up in Dover, MA, a very affluent community, I have never had to experience the low wage side of things. My parents work hard to give my brother and me everything we need. Although we are well off, we still see the issues of low wage work.
Ever since I was young, we have hired housekeepers. They would come weekly to clean, change the sheets, vacuum up the dog hair, and even mop the floors. Basically, to make everything look spick and spam. Sometimes my mom would even have them come twice before company came. When I was younger I didn’t understand the idea of a housekeeper. I would constantly ask my mom why I would have to clean my room before the cleaning lady came. She would always explain to me that her job wasn’t to pick up after me, but to vacuum my room and change my sheets. Now, I feel spoiled as I watch someone else clean our house.
Over the years I have gotten to know our different cleaning ladies well, so they feel like family. We constantly giver them food, old clothes, toys, etc. that we don’t want. Our current housekeeper, Claudia, is originally from Brazil, but speaks English relatively well. Claudia cleans houses for a living. Everyday she cleans different houses to help support her family. Sometimes she’ll bring her relatives to help clean the house more efficiently in a time restraint.
Having grown up with a cleaning lady I see the hardships that they face from a low wage life. Our housekeeper lives paycheck to paycheck. Whenever my mom needs to cancel on her she always tries to reschedule for a different day. Additionally, many housekeepers are of a different ethnicity trying to make ends meet. Therefore, she, along with many others, have to deal with a language barrier. Although, she speaks english, there are still some misunderstandings. Housekeepers also have to develop a sense of trust with their employer. This is a dilemma for many workers. It is easy for employers to blame housekeepers for breaking items or items gone missing. We know our cleaning lady so well that she now lets our dogs out to go to the bathroom and we have no problem leaving the house open for her when no one’s home.
I think housekeeping is a very interesting low page profession that many people don’t think of. It is a hard job in order to please their employer and make money while doing so. As we read in Nickel and Dimed its also very physically painful. That’s why I want to look more into housekeeping and create my next hypertext about it.

My low wage life

I have been fortunate enough to have never worked a low wage job. However, I spent the majority of my child hood raised by foreign nannies. I am one of four children with two parents who worked when I was a child. We had about 10 full-time, live-in nannies/housekeepers who took care of my siblings and me and cleaned the house. We paid them a meager wage weekly, plus provided them with a place to live and a car. Additionally though, all of our nannies were illegally living in the United States, which brings up a bigger topic. We were facilitating illegal immigrants and providing them with under the table wages with no tax. They worked week after week for us even though my siblings and I were huge brats. Everything they earned they earned to send back home to their children, so that they too could come to the United States one day and live the American dream. In Shipler’s novel “The Working Poor” he discusses how many people of the working poor are motivated by the exception who break free from poverty and live the “American dream”. He states, “When an exception breaks this cycle of failure, it is called the fulfillment of the American Dream”. While we did house illegal immigrants and pay them low wages, we provided them with an in between place: a place where they could have their own room with running water and electricity. They never had to worry about paying heating and electricity bills on time like most of the people in Shipler’s novel did.

Another aspect of the low wage life that I have experienced is the work that I have done throughout high school. I did not by any means experience low wage work but just the opposite. I babysat all through high school making about 10-12 dollars and hour in my younger years, and as much as 20 dollars an hour an a high school upper-classmen who drives. Reading “the working poor” made me feel incredibly fortunate to have the background and upbringing that I did that allowed me to receive wages that people 30 years older than me are struggling to make. I had the soft skills of “clarity of purpose, courageous self-esteem, a lack of substantial debt, the freedom from illness or addiction, a functional family, a network of upstanding friends” that many people in the low wage work force do. I had the skills as a 13 year old that 40 year olds do not just solely because of the family I was born into.

My Low Wage Life- Will Lynch

Like many of the students at Santa Clara University and even though the beginning to this proposal has been beaten to death, money has never been a huge issue for me or my family. My father has been an expatriate living overseas for the past thirty years. We have always lived extremely comfortably and I never really thought much about money. I keep finding my self feeling guilty every time I pick up and read the books that we have been assigned for this class. I read about people who are in such desperation for things that are so within my personal means that it sometimes seems farfetched and unbelievable that they can’t afford these things. It is very easy to push these unpleasant thoughts out of my head and retreat back into my comfortable sphere of affluence where this invisible world of poverty can’t affect me much. My meals will keep getting served and things around me will “keep on keeping on”.

What I am slowly realizing however is that I can’t remain in this sphere of affluence and not think about money forever. I come from a rich family, yes. Are they rich enough to support me for the rest of my life at my current lifestyle? I don’t think so. Not to mention the fact that even if they were, they most definitely would not support me for the rest of my life. At some point in the near future, I won’t be living off my parents and needing to be making money on my own. This is what my older brother said was the hardest part about leaving home. What I do know though, is that my brother and I will always have a safety net. My parents helped my brother buy his first home, they financed him through more than four years of college, and he still has a credit card from my parents to use “during emergencies”. My brother’s dog was hit by a car and needed emergency surgery. He didn’t have the money to pay for it, but luckily he reached into his wallet and pulled out his “emergency” credit card.

My brother and I have never, and will never live the low wage life. We will always have the safety net of having parents who will be there for us in times of desperation or near-desperation. Of course my brother does not take this safety net for granted; Tsunami (my brother’s dog) wouldn’t be around today without my parents because there was no way my brother could have afforded to pay for the surgery on his own.

People, who live the low wage life however, aren’t blessed with the luxury of having this safety net. Things would change if I didn’t have a safety net, to the point where I can barely imagine what I would do.

Briana MacDonald's Low-Wage Life Proposal

Education is one of those essential things necessary in life to be successful and advance yourself in the workplace later on in life. It’s a right for everyone to be educated, and learn as much as possible so that they can better their lives. Unfortunately though, many kids go without education, or receive shoddy educations because of school-systems that lack proper funding, and have teachers who don’t receive a reasonable pay for their essential work.
I have found myself lucky enough to have attended a highly prestigious private school in Minnesota from kindergarden to twelfth grade, and received one of the best educations in the entire state. The teachers, unlike most, were able to earn suitable wages due to tuition, donations, and other contributions that many public schools and other private schools don’t have. Due to the school, the teaching and the education I received, I already have a head-start in the world and future workplace.
However, a high percentage of the United States won’t find themselves in that same position, especially the teachers. Teachers are an essential part to producing smart, educated citizens that will continue to advance and contribute to our society. They provide an essential service to our nation that generally gets overlooked and underpaid. It’s interesting how doctors, lawyers, and other professions earn millions of dollars a year, while the teachers who teach our youth and prepare them for the future educational system and workplace get left in the dark with almost nothing.
Yes there are other jobs that are necessary for the United States to function that also get overlooked and underpaid, and without them we would find ourselves in trouble, but teaching is such an vital component in producing well-educated citizens that they deserve to be paid more than they are receiving right now.
In the book written by David K. Shipler, The Working Poor: Invisible in America, Shipler investigates the inside look on the working poor of America, and draws attention to the realities of low-wage jobs. In one of his chapters he talks about a woman named Christie, who worked at a YMCA child-care center and “did a job that this labor-hungry economy could not do without,” (39). Although she provided an extremely important service, that almost every working parent needs, she received so little money that she could not even afford to put her own two children in a child-care system in the place she worked.
It makes sense though that teachers and educators should be paid more than their low-wages right now because of the service they provide to America. They are doing important work that hugely benefits not only the youth but society as a whole. A good education will help and allow children to raise themselves out of poverty when they are older and escape the cycle, because without a good, solid education, you can’t really expect to go anywhere in life.

Low Wage Life - D.J.

Throughout my life I have been blessed with many opportunities such as attending a private high school as well as the opportunity to attend Santa Clara University. However many people in my family have not been given the same opportunities that I have been given throughout my life. Some of my family members have been forced to jump from job to job just to make ends meet. All of this financial insecurity is no way for anyone to live, but unfortunately it is necessary for people to just get by.

Many people who live the “low wage life” are forced to take on multiple jobs in order to put food on the table for themselves and for their family. Sometimes the workers will have to do multiple jobs because simply doing one job isn’t enough money for them, in order to sustain their current way of life. Often times getting a night job is necessary for the worker, however this also has many effect that can be detrimental to the worker. For instance if a person has to work two jobs often times they will not be getting as much sleep as they should. Also if this person has a family it will result in more time away from them, and every person needs time with their family. People need time to themselves to just relax and do what they want to do, but people who work at multiple jobs don’t have that luxury. Taking on two jobs is very detrimental to the person doing the work as well as the people that associate with the worker.

Although taking on two jobs is an unfortunate happening, it is important to understand why a person might be forced to do this. One possible reason could be something called the poverty cycle. The poverty cycle basically means that once a person is brought into the world under impoverished circumstances it will be difficult for them escape that lifestyle. For instance, if a person grows up in a poorer community often times it will mean that they might not receive the best education and because of the lack of education they might not be able to obtain a higher paying job in the work place. These are terrible circumstances that need to be corrected, however people have been trying to solve the poverty issue for many years but to no avail. People need to understand that poverty still exists in America as well as all over the world, and that it is still an important issue that needs to be addressed.

I think that in many situations people turn the blind eye to poverty because they don’t want to accept that it still exists today. This is unfortunate because millions of people around the world need our help. People taking on two or in some cases even three jobs should not happen. The world can’t sit back and watch as people suffer each day, instead people need to give to charities, do volunteer work, and other things in order to try and eradicate this issue.

Low Wage Life - Donnie Green

Thankfully I was not born into a family that works and lives the low wage life. I have never actually even had to work for low wages myself, something I have taken for granted. When I was young I couldn’t make the connections and understand why it is that some people are poor and live off of low wages. I always had the idea in my mind that anyone that worked hard could make a lot of money and that then gave me the impression that all of the people that were working low-paying jobs weren’t hard workers. I’ve come to realize that I was very wrong in my assumptions and that it is actually more often than not that people that live below poverty do work hard, if not harder to live than people who have money and live comfortably. While I’ve understood that concept for a while now, I haven’t been able to figure out why those low-wage workers seem stuck in a cycle that prevents them from ever getting out. However, after reading the works of Barbara Ehrenreich, Eric Schlosser, and David Shipler, I’ve come to realize that it seems like the bane of their existence is a poor education. While I certainly don’t believe that our nation should become communist and everyone should earn the same wages, I do think that it would be extremely beneficial for our country on a whole to pour more money into our educational systems thus giving more people the necessary foundations to escape poverty and make something of themselves. The fact that 20 million homes in the US do not have internet access, not including homes that don’t even have computers, shows that a large amount of people in this country don’t even have the modern day tools and even the skills that are now widely regarded as required in the job marketplace for competitive jobs. The reason that the majority of these people are computerless is that they simply can’t afford one. And why can’t they afford one? Because they didn’t receive an education that could launch them up to higher paying jobs and therefore many are stuck doing the low-paying menial labor that supports the comfortable lifestyles of the rest of the country. If we were to invest more money into the school systems and make them more accessible to everyone we could be preparing a new generation of bright individuals to create a stronger, more intelligent, and capable workforce. Another aspect which affects many of the low-income workers’ lives through their lack of education is the amount of resources and options the government has available to them that they either don’t know exist, don’t know how to access, or don’t have the means to access, such as a computer. The authors of these books that we’ve read so far in class have not only highlighted the many hardships faced by the low-wage workforce but have also opened my eyes to the reasons why they are stuck in these perpetuating cycles of debt and poverty and how closely connected they are to our daily lives.

My Low Wage Life

I have never been on my own and I have never had to go without anything necessary for survival, or even for comfort. I have worked for less than a living wage, I have spent the past four summers working at a summer camp getting paid between eighteen and twenty-four dollars a day. Even then I was living at camp, getting feed three good, hot, nutritious meals a day and I had a comfortable, safe, and warm bed to sleep in. When I was not at camp I had the luxury of going home to my parent’s house where my mom did my laundry and cooked me dinner every night. I have never paid my own rent or food bills. I pay my car insurance and my parents and I split a lot of my bills, but I have almost never had to go without something because there was no money for it.
I spent some time wondering how I contribute to other people’s low wage lives and came up with a few ways. My house is being remodeled by workers who I am guessing are illegal immigrants, I have never talked to my house cleaners and often wondered if they even speak English, and my school is somehow always immaculate yet you never see anyone cleaning. With all these things and people that affect my everyday life another group of workers and a real passion of mine came to mind. My love for inexpensive clothing.
While I was at American Apparel the other day I noticed how pricey I found their clothes. Almost everything in the store is mono-colored, yet a plain v-neck tee-shirt costs twenty dollars or three for fifty dollars. At a store such as H&M the same shirt costs less than ten dollars. I got to wondering why this is and began talking with a friend about it. She informed me that it was because American Apparel is an all American brand. They are sweat shop free and therefore pay all employees a living wage. So if I dislike their clothes because they are made by adequately paid people where do my clothes come from?
It turns out companies such as Forever 21 have a dirty back-story. In 2001 the company was sued for poor working conditions and underpaying workers. Before the law suit went to court the company, not wanting to be accused of having sweat shops, raised pay just enough that workers were satisfied. They have also been sued multiple times by designers such as Diane von Fürstenberg and Anna Sui because they have “ripped off” their designs. The company keeps costs down by cutting corners and eliminating the need for a full design team as well as keeping factory workers in the low wage life. Even companies such as Wal-Mart perpetuate the low wage life. Wal-Mart, whose primary demographic of shoppers is the low income working class, does nothing but help fuel its client base by paying low wages and providing few benefits. Americans wear sweatshops and other peoples low wage lives on their backs every day.

My Low Wage Job - Tom Allen

My Low Wage Life

Often times, people associate low wage jobs with manual labor. Indeed there are numerous low wage jobs that involve manual labor. Some include construction, gardening, and housekeeping, however, the one that I was able to experience first hand was lumber work. Lumber jacking proves to be one of those jobs that people assume “gets done” without really thinking of the people involved. In general, people take the lumber that we use for granted and it does not require much work to acquire. However, from my experience, lumber jacking proved to be extremely taxing on my body both mentally and physically. The most obvious aspect of it is that you must physically exert yourself to do any feature of this kind of work. Whether it be using a chainsaw, an axe, or just simply carrying the wood, one must be in top physical shape with a good amount of strength to carry out this job. Additionally, concentration is a key factor in successfully doing this job. If one fails to concentrate, he will put not only the quality of the work at risk, but also his personal safety. More times than not he is working with heavy machinery. Over time, I feel that the public has lost its respect for the manual labor, low wage jobs, yet they are essential to keep our society functioning.

During my short experience working with lumber, I would find at the end of each day that I would have very little energy left to do anything else. It was at these moments that I realized the hardships a lumberjack must face each day. In my case, I was able to go home and relax because it was the summer. At these moments I realized that if I actually depended on this job to sustain myself, I would lead a very exhausting lifestyle. Additionally, it is typically a low wage job, so money would constantly be an issue. I also quickly realized that this is not a job that one does for the money but rather because it is something that he enjoys doing.

One thing to admire about a lumberjack is his physical and mental strength. Unlike most jobs in which one solely depends on his brain to complete the job, a lumberjack must use his brain as well as an extraordinary amount of strength to do his job. Heavy machinery is common in lumberjack work and therefore there can be very serious consequences if one does not handle it correctly. I, personally, was only allowed to deal with the wood splitter, which is an axe with a more blunt end. However, my brother, who was my work partner, was in charge of handling the chainsaw. As the hours passed by, I would notice how taxing this work was on both his mind and body. Even though we were our own bosses and could have stopped at any time, he chose to persist because it was something he enjoyed doing. I quickly related this to a full time lumberjack and realized that because this was a low wage job, one must have a true passion for the work itself or they are going to lead a very stressful life both physically and mentally.

Living the Low Wage Life-Andrew Agcaoili

I myself have never lived the low wage life. As the son of a business man and a doctor, money troubles were present, but easily overcome. I never really cared about money until the recent economic down turn and the acquisition of my first job. This job was selling knives, and I was great at it. I was making my own money for the first time and came to know the value of a dollar. As I realized that a dollar was not that much anymore, I looked around at the lives of my friends. As an eighteen-year-old, I was making more than a lot of my friend and their parents. I couldn’t believe it. I did the calculations, and not even my high paycheck could meet the minimum amount needed to live in the Bay Area.
After reading Shipler, I figured out how their lives would turn out if they stopped paying the bills, but that did not answer my question, how could they still live in the Bay Area? It turns out that many of my friend’s and even coworkers at Cutco took their job to support their families. Not only When I found that out, I felt terrible. Here I was spending all my money on useless materials, while a whole family was struggling to make it by. My best friend’s family had been on a financial decline in the years leading up to his graduation, but it had finally hit when he was off getting ready to start community college. For now, many of my friend’s plans have been put aside because of his misfortune. He spends most of his days finding work where he can get paid under the table. Usually it is favors for others and jobs from his friend’s dad’s construction company. My friend plans to pursue an education, but he does not know when.
My Proposal for a hypertext is to talk about the kids who live in poverty, and why they stay there. Kids are the future, but if most of them grow up in a cycle of pain and loss, what does that mean for our future? Kids who grow up in poverty cannot escape, even if they try hard to. They are stuck in a society where everything costs money, even a path out of poverty. Sure every once in a while, a person graduates from high school of college, but what does that really do for them? The truth is that poverty is like a monster that brings the people who once lived in it, back. It is relentless and I want my site to help other to get to know how the new generation is stuck. I want the world to know how kids, just trying to do what is right are punished for helping their families.

My Low Wage Life

            I have been fortunate enough throughout my life that I have yet to work at a low wage job. However that does not mean that the impact of low wage jobs is not present in my life. Because my parents have been able to provide for our family so well, we have always had cleaning ladies and gardeners who we pay a low wage. I always felt bad seeing them come over to our house and knowing how much better off I am than they are, even though I’m so much younger. Even with the money that they make cleaning all those houses, they are still struggling, and my mom would always offer them our old things when we cleaned out our house, which they graciously took. They are the nicest and sweetest ladies and I have always felt that they deserve so much better than what they have, which makes me want to work hard and strive for a better life.

            Everything that I just described is the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of low wage workers and the working poor, and I feel as though those same thoughts occur for many people. An issue that has been prominent in my life, and that I feel has often times been overlooked is the teenage working poor. Yes many teenagers work for a low wage, however most people have the mindset that they are not poor and they are still supported by their parents. Yet there are many teenagers who are in fact part of the working poor. I learned this first hand from two of my best friends in high school. Ever since the beginning of freshmen year, they have worked low wage jobs. Having a job was not a regular thing for girls in my class because we went to a private catholic school with a fairly high tuition, so I was extremely surprised when I found this out about them.

            My friend’s parents were struggling enough trying to pay for their tuition, and that was just about all the money they could spare. So if my friends wanted any of their own spending money, they were going to have to figure out a way to get it on their own. I was shocked by this, and the idea of supporting myself as a freshman in high school terrified me. Nevertheless being a working poor teenager is a reality for many people. My friends obviously do not appear poor because they went to the school that they did and their parents still did provide them with shelter and education and food. But they were not as fortunate as me in that they could get by without having a job. They basically paid for everything throughout high school other than their house, education, and food.

            Especially in the recent economy situation with so many people struggling to find jobs, teenagers are having an extremely difficult time finding work. Because of their inexperience, teenagers are often the first to be laid off in budget cuts. They are also at the bottom of the chain when it comes to rehiring. The unemployment rate of teenagers is nearly three times that of the non-teenage group.  This is a major problem because there are teenagers out there who are in serious need of work, but it is impossible for them to find any. The economy has also prevented many of the older workers from retiring, so the competition is extremely high with many more workers than there usually is. People that have just graduated from college are often times working jobs that do not even require a college degree because they cannot find anything better to do. There are so many factors that prevent teenagers from getting decent jobs and supporting themselves when their families cannot. They are stuck working extremely low wage jobs if any, and then find it difficult to ever move much further up the totem pole.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/business/economy/05teen.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1252173756-h0l4XqtoiSriPQpy/yIk5w

My Low Wage Life

For millions of people, the fear of living in poverty is too close for comfort. Too many people have to worry about saving every cent possible and too many people are forced to limit themselves in fear of not being able to pay off their monthly electrical bill or their taxes. Low wage jobs, though often involving manual labor and excruciatingly long hours, are oftentimes the only option for individuals to get by. Oftentimes, being a part of a low wage job involves desensitization as workers are stripped of their individuality and confined to long hours, constant drug tests, and monotonous work for a miniscule amount of money. Shipler’s “The Working Poor” evaluates the physical, emotional, and psychological consequences of being a low wage worker. Workers are viewed as assets rather than individuals and judged soely on ability rather than personality or effort. Whether it be working as a janitor at the nearest public high school, being a housekeeper for a family, or working in the fast food industry, low wage jobs are all around us. I believe that every individual can relate to being a low wage worker in some capacity because, realistically, it is a part of all of us. Did you ever consider where your favorite “Lucky Brand” shirt was made or your favorite pair of boots? Chances are, it was made by someone working in an overcrowded, stuffy factory for hours upon hours for minimum wage or less.

Although I have never been employed as a low wage worker, many of my friends have been forced to work as low wage workers in order to support themselves and help pay for their education. One of my best friends in high school was forced to work at the local Kentucky Fried Chicken. She was forced to take regular drug tests, adorn a stiff white polo shirt and musty red apron and don a smile as she took orders from rude customers. She worked long hours and was constantly bossed around by her supervisors for not filling the soft drinks quickly enough or getting customers their change in a timely fashion. However, my friend was one of the lucky ones because she did not depend on this job to get by in life as many do. For many, working at McDonalds of KFC means being able to pay the monthly bills. When I discussed with my friend her experience working at KFC for the summer, she told me that in reality she was one of the lucky ones because she did not RELY upon her 8 dollars an hour to keep her out of debt and owning a home. She told me about the devastation she would see when someone was fired and suddenly left to fend for themselves without anything to fall back on. She told me about the people she would see volunteering to work overtime just so they could have enough money to buy baby food for their newborn. Living a low wage life is far from luxurious and often involves physical and emotional breakdown. Listening to these experiences and reading in-depth about low wage work has made me realize just how fortunate I am to have a roof over my head.

working poor

Growing up in my household my family was not the richest we couldn’t get all the nice things other kids had but by far we were not broke, me and my brother both went to private high schools even though we had to go on work grant. My mom had a good job which supported my family because my dad was unemployed ever since he got laid off when I was in sixth grade. In the book the working poor poverty was defined in many different ways but they explained it very well, “Poverty, then, does not lend itself to easy definition. It may be absolute- an inability to buy the basic necessities. It may be relative- an inability to buy the lifestyle that prevails at the certain time and place.” By no stretch on the imagination was my family in poverty we lived in a decent neighborhood, we had 3 car, nice furniture in the house and what not. I guess it was more of a feeling for me, I went to an extremely wealthy school and it seemed like all my friends where living in a way that was normal and I was below that, discussed in the working poor also in the example of the rice bowls, if a man lived in a village where one bowl was the normal and he had two he was be considered privileged and vice versa. But at my school there was the working poor, not any of the students, none of the teachers but the janitors, landscapers and the many people working in the cafeteria. At my high school these people were treated really well because the faculty urged us to clean up after our self to make the job easier for the people cleaning up after us and a bunch of little things like that. I had a friend at the school whose mother worked in the cafeteria, he told me that the only was he could come to the school is because his mom worked at the school which allowed him to come with very little charge. He also said the people he grew up with where living total opposite lives because of what they where influenced in school and the people they where involved with. This is exactly what David Shipler was talking about when he talked about a domino effect, because kids are in bad situations they go to bad schools, get involved with the wrong crowd, to keep up with the other kids they try to get money by selling drugs or stealing, which leads to a endless spiral of bad decisions and poverty continues.

badwages

Andrew Dugoni
Writing with New Media I
Marc Bousquet

I have to admit. I have never personally been a victim of bad wages. Nor have I ever really been personally affiliated with people who work for low wages. But I have however, seen what it is like. When I was a junior in high school, I had to do many service hours as a requirement for my school. For a lot of my hours, I went with a bunch of friends to help pick pomegranates from pomegranate trees. To me it was fun. I had a great time, I fooled around with my friends threw the pomegranates around and played a bunch of games. And I didn’t feel bad because my friends were doing it, and all the other people there were volunteers. But the more and more we worked still, the more tired we got. And when we got tired we got to take a break. And we always thought this doesn’t matter were not getting paid were just doing this for service hours. But none of us thought, however, what it would be like to do these hours upon hours day after day to earn such a small sum of money. I myself only did a few hours and I was already like jeez that was the longest hours I’ve ever done I hope I don’t have to do that again.
I never really thought about what it would be like to live like that. To live a low wage life. To work hours and hours 7 days a week to earn meager wages. Its hard for me to understand because I have grown up in a pretty wealthy family. And again, I have never really been affected by low wages because every job I worked paid at least $10 an hour. And I still find it hard to believe, that in a very promising and economic land that there are still millions of people in America that are so underpaid and underprivileged. The reason I want to write about this topic is because the more I read in The Working Poor and Nickel and Dimed, the more I came to realize how wrong that is. That the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. I want to understand how these people live, how they live their lives, how much they earn. Because even during my little service hours is nothing compared to the lives of these peoples.

Limited Horizons

Every season was a new sport. A new stick, a different ball, a clean jersey, and an unfamiliar group of girls who would great me each new season as one sports winning streak came to an end and the next one was just beginning. I went through middle school and high school spending the majority of my time outside the classroom playing sports. My life was consumed by late practices, games on weekends, tournaments across the country, and my teammates. It all seemed so important. It would be game day. I would be sore from the practice the night before but it would prepare me well for the big game against one of our rival teams. We would wear our uniforms to school, teachers and classmates would tell us good luck, posters with cheers and messages of support would cover the hallways, and we would all walk on the field together. I would give every game, every practice, every moment I was on the field my all. It all seemed so important, and I considered it my job.

When grownups or teachers would ask me if I had a job I would reply, "With what time?" I would wake up at 7:30, go to school, straight to practice, and get home around 9 with a some time for homework. I had no time to be employed, to earn a living. My job was to go to school and to win games. I did my job well. I was a good student and was captain of two teams both ranked top 10 in the country, and when I graduated I felt accomplished and satisfied that the job I had done was a job I was proud of.

It was not until graduation and the end of my high school sports career that I realized I never had a real job. A job that required an interview, a schedule, a boss, and most importantly a paycheck. I was used to tryouts, practice schedules, and coaches, but my paycheck was winning and there were no dollar signs attached. It was time for me to get a real job. A job that required hard work, effort, and time.

After a couple useless arguments with my parents I decided it would be easiest for me to just work at my dad's restaurant. It was close to my house, I could choose my own hours, I'd get work experience, and I would get paid. During the day I would file invoices, pay bills, and count receipts. It was busy work that took time but was not difficult. It took about an hour for me to get aquatinted with the computer programs and filing systems the office used and I was competent after day one. When I would work evenings I would hostess the entire restaurant and wait on the few tables in the bar area. I trained for a few hours the first day but my dad said I was a natural and I would pick it up right away. It was hard work. It was a busy restaurant with plenty of costumers and plenty to do. I would typically work 6 hours straight taking one or two ten minute breaks if necessary. I would get off around 12 and be exhausted. Occasionally I would meet up with my friends afterwork but I'd usually be too tired and go straight home.

After writing down my work experience it seems frivolous and juvenile. I had it made easy. No interview, no previous work experience, no tremendously difficult work, 6 hour shifts, and most importantly my dad was the boss so none of my fellow employees were looking to get on my bad side. Reading the first three chapters of "The Working Poor" and learning about the dozens of people struggling to live off the jobs they held at restaurants was startling. I worked to have spending money in college these people are working to afford housing, and plumbing, and taxes, and the basics, all of which I already had.

Before being "employed" I considered sports my job and they were. Not a paying job but the general ideas and structure were the same. If I had not had my experience with sports to show me what dedication, reliability, and responsibility required I do not think I would have been able to keep the job at my dads restaurant. Without the computer classes I took I would not have been able to understand the systems in my dads office. And without my dad's influence and my upbringing around restaurants I would not have picked up serving so easily. What about the majority of Americans who aren't like me? Who don't understand responsibility who don't have fathers that can employ them? They are limited to what there education has taught them, what their family (if they have one) has provided for them, and the skills they have picked up along the way. They are limited from the start. It is not some big horizon waiting for them to succeed it is a miniscule frontier prolonging failure.

Living the Low-Wage Life

I have worked for minimum wage but by no means would consider myself a low-wage worker.  I mean after reading Shipler and seeing the horrific conditions so many of the true low-wage workers in Americans undergo, I would be a poser to ever try and classify myself in the same boat as them.  I mean considering I am attending a private, out of state university and currently writing this topic invention on my own laptop…I am definitely not one to talk.  However, I can sympathize to some degree with those unreliable hours, annoying customers, and stupid company rules employers must abide by.  Having worked at Starbucks for close to two and a half years and having had experience in the retail business at my local mall, I recognize the daunting tasks of cleaning toilets and meticulously folding and refolding clothes in the “correct” fashion. 

            The summer going into my senior year of highschool  I decided to take on two part-time jobs simply to occupy time and ensure I would not have any downtime that summer (I am the kind of person who LOVES to be constantly busy).  I had been working at Starbucks for a year and had always been intrigued by the whole “working a mall” idea.  I was approached one day at a store named Hollister&Co and I soon found myself filling out an application, being called back for an interview, and soon after being offered a job.  As silly as it sounds I was excited I had been offered a job here because I had heard they only ask “attractive” people to apply…how superficial do I feel right now…During my time at Hollister I felt as if I was being trained in the wrong aspects of the industry.  I was more interested in helping individuals or families select new clothes opposed to pushing new and disgustingly smelling products on customers.  I felt so phony when I was forced to greet every single customer with our current catchphrase or ask them if they had checked out our new body products before checking them out at the register.  Regardless of how this morally made me feel I found myself nervous when my manager would begin his rounds to see if all of us employees were following proper store procedure.  I worried and fussed about my appearance and if I had already worn a certain outfit to work during previous shifts. I made sure I was aware of the daily store goals, how many items had been stolen from us in the previous two weeks, and what our most current store greeting was.  This daily process consumed me and I lost track of who I truly was as an individual.  There was no room to be an individual in this corporation. 

            I would often find myself running between shifts at Hollister and Starbucks with very little downtime.  I was constantly terrified of being late and getting written up.  Nonetheless, whenever I was transitioning between shifts I found time for myself where I did not have to be concerned about serving the customers.  I definitely felt better treated and more appreciated while working at Starbucks.  I felt like I was actually serving a purpose and was able to connect with customers on a more real basis.  I felt as though my personal identity was more in tact and I could truly be myself around my fellow employees and customers.  Reflecting back on it, many of my fellow employees, or “partners” as we call ourselves in Starbucks world, are actually working here to support their families, earn money to send themselves to school, or simply have enough money to pay bills and actually make a living.  For me, I was working there for some extra cash to have on hand since I have not received a real allowance since I was a freshman in high school.  This realization became even more evident and struck home more after reading the first three chapters of Shipler.  I was a worker because I wanted to, not because I needed to be. 

 

Low Wage Life-Bri Cassara

Bri Cassara

CTW: Writing with New Media

2 November 2009

Living the Low Wage Life: Proposal

When I think about low wage work I don’t immediate associate myself with it. Sure, I’ve worked for minimum wage and for managers who treated my coworkers and I unfairly but in the grand scheme of things that doesn’t mean much in comparison to some of the treatment workers have received all over the globe. Since I turned 15, I’ve worked for three main jobs: at a local amusement park, at Nob Hill Foods grocery store, and at Starbucks. Of the three I enjoyed Starbucks the most. Making lattes and mochas in spite of the rude customers was a job that I genuinely took pleasure in doing. I worked there over a year and in that time witnessed a variety of business aspects of the company. Whether it was employee programs, promotional platforms, or benefits programs, there was always a flier up in the backroom with some new program to be launched. But even though Starbucks offers benefits to part-time partners and pays well over minimum wage the idea of “barely scraping by” is ever-present. Whether it was my 50 year old coworker who worked also at See’s Candy in order to put her children through college, or my 25 year old coworker whose dreams of beauty schools were hushed by the off balance of working irregular forty hour weeks, or my store manager whose unhappiness couldn’t have been more apparent if it was tattooed across her forehead, the idea of dissatisfaction in the workplace wasn’t non-existent. The difference between my situation and that of a struggling low-wage worker is that Starbucks is an ideal company to be a part of. It’s true that my coworkers had opportunities all around them to take advantage of. Making above minimum wage and receiving benefits help, of course, but the fight for security and happiness are still goals often out of reach.

It would be pathetic if I were to try and compare my experience with those whose situations are far more unacceptable than the ones I’ve faced. I am by no means trying to say that I understand the gravity of the concept of a “low wage life.” The greatest lessons in life, I’ve found, are when you are able to relate an idea with a real situation, and that is what I plan to do with this hypertext. I will write about what it is like to wear the “barista” apron and the difficulties workers face as they begin their career in a well-respected corporation known as “Starbucks.” I will not bash the corporation or its principles because I genuinely appreciate the options they give “partners” (workers) when their names are added to the Starbucks payroll. I will simply write on the negative aspects of the company in general, issues that are present at any corporation no matter how respected. Starbucks procedures are what I know, Starbucks partners are what I’ve witnessed, and Starbucks is what I’ll discuss.

The Low Wage of a Single Parent

The Low Wage Life of a Single Parent
As children, Bianca and I never realized how distinct her life was from others who were not living her low wage lifestyle. Although I knew Bianca to have only one parent, throughout our childhood, we appeared to be living the same lifestyle. Her mother Juana did all she could to conceal Bianca’s “flaw”. However, as we grew older and reminisced on our childhood, the traces of poverty began to materialize.
Bianca Jimenez appears to be a normal second grader living the lifestyle of a middle class child. She attends a catholic elementary school, has a roof over her head, eats meals regularly, and gets new outfits at the beginning of each new school year. However, at second glance, Bianca is a child who is living a life of relative poverty. Bianca obtains financial aid that is crucial to her attendance at the catholic elementary school, a school that in fact is centered in an urban area that is notorious for gang violence and low wage residents. She lives in a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with 4 people; her mother, brother and sister, also in a neighborhood that is well known for its criminal activity. Her lunch is bought at the school, a more expensive option than bringing her own, but because her mother is too busy to make one she must pay the more expensive price. For dinner her mother will often make a hot meal that will last for a couple of days; a hearty soup, some meat with rice, or spaghetti. Eating out is a rare luxury. The new outfits that Bianca and her sibling receive at the beginning of the school year are courtesy of second hand stores and for Bianca especially, hand me downs from the older sister. Their house is also furnished by second hand retailers, any visible signs of worn being covered by dollies and other cheap decorative devices used to conceal the appearance of poverty. All of this comes as a result of her mother being a single parent with a low wage job.
Bianca’s mother, Juana, is a divorced immigrant from Mexico who did not receive a four year college degree. When Juana was 6 she moved to California with her family of 11 and also lived a life of relative poverty. Fortunately, Juana learned English as a second language early on and was able to obtain low paying jobs in order to help support herself through adolescence. When she married at 22, Juana and her then 2 children were supported by her construction worker husband, a time when she lived an easier life at the middle class status. However, in 1986 Juana divorced and was left to support 3 children without a house to live in, a car to drive, and no job. Juana applied to welfare, and after filling out the wearisome paperwork and being verified to qualify, received the help. Every month Juana received food stamps for some basic groceries such as cheese, milk, and cereal. After gaining experience in the work force and applying to many jobs, Juana slowly began to rebuild her life. Today, Juana works at an insurance company as a claims adjuster and receives $30,000 a year to support 4 children; a paycheck that results in a lifestyle similar to that when she qualified for welfare. With her once a month paycheck of $2,500, Juana puts $1,000 to the rent of her house. She then puts another $1000 to the tuition of her 2 children, Bianca and her older sister, who attend catholic elementary school. With the $500 that is left over, she must pay her car payment, the utilities, and make the rest stretch for groceries and other necessary expenses. Every month, Juana runs $200 short and in turn accumulates $200 worth of credit card debt.
The low wage lifestyle of a single parent mother without a college degree is one of great difficulty; difficulty that is spread to both the provider as well as those being provided for. Poverty can have the appearance of a normal lifestyle, and this is often the goal for parents who are living a life of relative poverty; to appear to live as normal so that their children are unaware of the hardship.

Living a low wage life

It is no surprise that there are many low wage workers in the United States. There are many different types of people that work for low wage jobs. There are poor families that live paycheck to paycheck, immigrants that have come with nothing looking for the “American dream”, single mothers or fathers working to support their children, or even individuals just entering the real world working to eventually live a richer life. The “American Dream” is the reason for so many immigrants (legal or illegal), and citizens work or come to the United States. It is difficult but possible to raise from the very bottom to the richer life, and low wage jobs are where it starts- some people just never make it past that point. The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David Shipler brings to view many of the reasons for so many people working low wage jobs and the problems that come along with it. Living in poverty, poor education, and unemployment are three reasons why people are forced into low wage jobs. Once people get low wage jobs they spend all of their time working to get as much money as possible from those jobs-even though many of them have to work multiple jobs just to make it through the week with enough money for a home and some food. Everyone can relate to low wage jobs whether they have worked for one or not, and I am no exception.

working in restaurants are extremely common low wage jobs that countless numbers of teens and adults have had in their life. Although I have never worked as a waitress in a restaurant myself, I have known many people who have and I have used the services of waitresses countless numbers of times. The minimum wage in the United States as of July 2009 is $7.25, however many waitresses are still paid lower wages that even that. Waitresses and all employees in restaurants work very hard for countless hours and get paid barely enough to live. Many waitresses get more tips than they get from their salary, but they don’t even receive all of their tips because their bosses and supervisors control them. Many teenagers who work in restaurants are not working for a living because they are still living with their parents and are saving all of the money they were working for. Many adults who work in restaurants are only barely getting by with the small amounts of money they earn from working in a restaurant. They are also forced to work multiple jobs in order to get by, so they end up working starting in the early morning until the very late hours of the night. Not only are the hours difficult for both young teens and adults, the work included in their jobs aren’t a walk in the park either. Nothing makes me angrier than seeing anyone working hard only to be criticized or humiliated by grumpy customers who are being waited on. These people are barely paying to be waited on and served only to be rude and ruin working people’s days. These people are already working for low wages which adds enough trouble and stress to their lives-they do not need any more. These people deserve to be rewarded for their efforts for a better life, and I hope that with this project, people will see the difficulty of working low wage jobs, especially those in restaurants, and see them differently than they do now.

Housekeeping-Scrubbing All Day for Low Wages

I was raised in the well-known small town, Carmel California. Carmel is a beautiful area and a favored spot for tourists, but it is a very expensive place to live. Houses are well beyond an affordable range and many people who can afford them don’t even stay the whole year because Carmel is merely their “vacation home” destination. While there are average and less costly places to live in Carmel, fewer people have been able to live there over the past couple of years. Since Carmel is such a wealthy area, there is a great divide between those who have high quality jobs and those who don’t. In other words, there is a clear distinction between people who have to work low-wage jobs and people who are financially well off. Often times, it is easy to distinguish the two since Carmel is a prominently white community and those working low-wage jobs tend to be of different ethnicities, primarily Hispanic.

While I can’t say that I’m not connected to the successful, white community of Carmel I have many connections to low-wage workers. My family has been employing housekeepers for about eight years. These women, who have almost always been Hispanic, come into our home once a week and do the laundry, change the sheets, vacuum and mop the floors and basically get the house into clean and pristine shape. My family has employed a family of sisters for many years now. Since they know our house and what to do with it, I hardly notice when they are there. My mom usually does all the talking  (even though I sometimes regret not speaking to them in Spanish since I do know the basics), and I basically just say thank you whenever they leave. Often times I feel like a spoiled brat who is having women with much more life experience clean her room. Other times, I must admit, I don’t think about it because I have become used to their service.

I have noticed some general ideas about the jobs of housekeepers after having them work for our family over the years. First of all, their work is primarily “grunt work.” I feel like housekeepers are stuck doing the work that no one else wants to do. This work can take a long time and can be very tiring. Also, it seems that housekeepers don’t always make enough money to fully support themselves and their families. There have been many occasions where my mom has given our housekeepers food, materials, and even old televisions and toys to give to their kids. Continuing on, housekeepers seem to generally be women of Hispanic heritage and many of them work in groups. The housekeepers who come to my house are actually all related to each other and will often times bring their mother or sister along to help speed up the process. My family has a decent relationship with these women but often times, problems can arise between the owners and the workers. A common problem for housekeepers is establishing trust with their employers that they won’t steal anything from the house while the owner is gone and will always report on any lost or damaged items.

            I am very interested on the occupation of housekeepers and how they both suffer and survive. I would like to focus primarily on what a housekeeper has to go through on a daily basis, how he or she gets by with the little money that is earned, and how common racial and economical stereotypes affect how a housekeeper is treated. House keeping is incredibly common in today’s world and the difficulty of the occupation can easily be overlooked. I would like very much to delve into the lives of housekeepers of today’s society and to learn just how strongly their lives are impacted by their low-wage jobs.

Living the Low-Wage Life
Work is a four letter word. Not many people get up in the morning thrilled about having to spend the next eight hours of their life at work. This is especially true for those who are working for low wages. They must work under difficult conditions for hours only to obtain insufficient pay. The government sets a minimum wage that employers must pay, so at least no one in America is forced to work for less. However, many people who work in these jobs must support themselves and their families, while others just work part-time for these wages, and have other income or support from family.
I know something about working for low wages since I worked at a clothing store for eight dollars an hour (the legal minimum wage) for over a year. There are many frustrating things about working in a low-wage job beside the fact you aren’t being paid enough. It can be mentally and physically challenging; there were many times where I exhausted myself by trying to do inventory while helping a customer while also having to clean. And many times when I was doing all that, a fellow employee would just be standing in the back. How is that fair? We were getting paid the same amount yet I did all the work. Fatigue and anxiety go hand in hand while working a job like mine.
Once a worker begins their shift, they must keep in mind the motto “the customer is always right”. Customers can be very demanding. If they don’t get a certain size or if their latte doesn’t have extra whipped cream, they might act as if it is the end of the world. It’s understandable that if they are paying for good products and service that they want to feel they are getting the right value in both. I have seen customers throw horrible tantrums for not getting precisely what they want. And as a worker we must tolerate being yelled at since we are in no position to lose our jobs. But on the other hand, customers can make a worker’s day better. I am so impressed by customers who fold shirts after trying them on or want to make small talk with me. They understand that working for minimum wage is frustrating and show true compassion.
There are many effects on the society or community at large of low wage jobs. In my case, I was a high school student working to get spending money. But some of my co-workers really relied on this job to support themselves, often working long hours and holding other similar jobs. Many people in our culture do not develop the skills to get better jobs, so are doomed to work for minimum wage. These people probably spend all their earnings on basic needs like food and rent, meaning the economy will not grow. They will also need more help if they are sick and as they grow older, using tax dollars in government programs; money which then can’t be spent on highways and schools, etc.
For me, working in a low wage job has only reinforced my desire to have a well-paying career. I had a glimpse of what my life would be and didn’t I like what I saw. It has motivated me to strive for bigger and better things.

Low-wage nannies and how they affect the children they care for

Marie Galetto: Research Hypertext Topic Invention

I have always lived a comfortable life and have only ever worked for low wages by choice. I volunteer a lot of my time and work mostly with children. I have worked as a teacher’s aid for my grammar school and as a camp counselor for my church. I have also had paying jobs that deal with children. I have been a babysitter for a family friend multiple times. More recently I filled in for my brother’s girlfriend who is a nanny. She was having knee surgery and the family she works for needed a fill-in. I never realized how much energy and patience goes into being a full-time nanny. The girl I took care of needed constant attention and lots of different types of entertainment. It was not a job that you could do without focusing your whole attention on the child because they would notice if you were ignoring them. I left each day feeling drained and ready to just relax. I only worked for them for a week but it was enough to make me understand what hard work that job entails.
When I went back to visit the girl I took care of after my brother’s girlfriend went back to work we took a trip to the park. I noticed that most of the women at the park with children were obviously not the children’s mothers. It was a very affluent neighborhood and most of the women taking care of the children looked young and most had accents. I also went with my aunt and 2-year-old cousin to her gymnastics class and noticed that a few of the children called the women they were with by their first names. My other aunt has three young boys and hires a nanny who comes a few times a week. The nanny is a young new mother and brings her 2-year-old daughter to play with my 3-year-old cousin while she works.
The job market for nannies seems to be dominated by either very young women trying to get through school or immigrant women. Both of these types of people are forced to work at this highly demanding job while at the same time confronting stressful personal situations. Young students have to plan classes and homework time around babysitting hours. These hours can be very demanding and long, especially if the children the watch are not in school yet. I could not imagine putting in a full day of work only to have to go to class or do my homework. A lot of the immigrant women working as nannies have their own children or may work more than one job. This especially takes a toll on their children at home since they may come to feel like their mother cares more about the children she takes care of at work since she is probably very tired by the time she gets home. Also, these jobs often do not offer any kind of benefits since the nannies are being employed privately by individual families. There is also an issue of how nannies effect the growth and development of the children they take care of. I would like to focus my research hypertext on the hardships of low-wage nannies and how they affect the children they watch.

My Low Wage Life by Michael Adair

Michael Adair

I have been working at a low-wage position for the past four years of my life. I have a good grasp on what kind of physical pains and labors go into working PART-TIME at one of these jobs. In reality, working full time at a low-wage job for your entire life is nearly impossible. Physically, your body wears down, you are emotionally drained, and economically you are doomed. If I had to survive on my income from a low-wage job, I would be officially screwed. Those adults that I worked with were typically working two jobs, one was full time, and the other was part time. One woman would literally drive from an eight hour shift at the grocery store directly to the restaurant that I worked at and would work until closing (typically around 10 PM). She was working 14-hour days to support herself and her husband. She worked Monday-Saturday at both jobs and Sunday was her “day off” because she only worked her 8-4 shift at the grocery store. These heroes, those persons that work two low-wage jobs, are whom I hope to focus on for my project. They struggle through life just to meet ends meet, in order to support their significant other and children. They can be right out of high school or in their 50’s. In any case, they are impressive. However, the fact that they are always working definitely causes some problems. There is a decrease in the amount of time that they can spend with their families. This may have detrimental effects upon their children, breeding further generations of neglected, bitter children. They cannot fully raise the children according to a strong sense of morals and ethics because they are not home enough to do so. Especially if they are a single parent and need to put their children in after-school day care, which costs them more money, so they have to work even more than they thought. The two-job workers themselves may suffer from extreme depression because they are constantly working and are trying to support everyone and have no time for themselves due to the fact that they are trying to keep their family safe and healthy. The pressure continually mounts upon them and they don’t know how to let loose because they have to constantly be working in order to survive. It’s a rough life for them. I would like to really focus in on those persons that work in restaurants due to the fact that I worked at various restaurants for four years. I got to see most aspects of restaurant working lives. I worked as a dishwasher, as a prep cook, as a host, as a buss-boy, and as a waiter. I have come to know the stress and physical/emotional pains that come with just the work alone. Especially over summers, I was practically working full time. However, there was a major difference between my experience and the experience of those that are constantly working two jobs. I was working to save money for college, to better myself, so that I would not have to work low-wage jobs my entire life. It was entirely different because I had a home and food to come home to every day and a safe life while only working one job, and I had a goal for a better life. I can’t even fathom the fear and pains that must come with being a single parent working two back-breaking jobs just to support my children in the hope that they will not end up in the situation that I’m in. There’s a certain hopelessness about it, no goals besides making it to the end of the month and hoping your children don’t fall in the same trap you fell into through your life decisions.

Project Proposal

Project Proposal

For my next project on poverty, I propose the idea of “inequality” in the manufacturing of sports equipment. I know that this has been in the media a lot with companies like Nike, but I would focus on all companies, especially major ones who supply professional athletes with equipment and endorsements. I would like to focus on the connection between the jobs of low wage workers in comparison to the athletes that they make a product for. I believe that there could be a telling story and an obvious gap between the two. I would like to investigate not only where the products are manufactured but how much of a profit they make by outsourcing their labor, and how that affects not only professional athletes, but collegiate and prep school athletes as well. I feel that I have some knowledge of the use of equipment not only at the high school level, but since 3 of my best friends play big time collegiate football, and myself being part of the recruiting process I can relate to the use of equipment as a mere commodity that is given out almost at the stretch of the hand. Although I will investigate into every sport, I would like to focus on the NFL and NCAA football. My goal is to find out where and how these leagues and teams get so many endorsements and the profit that the companies make off of them. I would like to pay close attention to the “accessories” such as wrist bands, gloves, cleats, and clothing that are given out to not only players and coaches and see how much of that is not only made by low wage workers, but how much of a percent increase the company makes on such a product.

Living the Low Wage Life by Julia Mink

“Living the low wage life” has never been an issue in my life. Even though I am only eighteen, I have had the opportunity to live a plentiful life. Everything has been handed to me with ease. Not only that, but my family and I get to live a little bit of the wealthy life. But, underneath it all is a major social issue: being poor.
At my house, we have maids who come once every two weeks and gardeners who come once every week. I always wonder what their lives are like. Often times, the maids children come to our house just because they cannot afford daycare. Other times, the gardeners ask if we want a more colorful garden, just so we will pay them more. I often feel bad for them, because they have to work for the people who have easier lives. It’s although money is being dangled in front of them.
Or what about when we go to the mall twice a week? Most of the people working in the stores are just high school or college kids looking for some money. But the people in the food court, cleaning up after us, are mostly living the low wage life.
It’s sad because, even though every human being is born into the same world, which holds the same potential opportunities for everyone, not every human is handed the tools to earn success (in terms of money). For example, I was born with a solid college education fund from my grandparents, grew up in the nicest area of the South Bay, and sent to some of the best public schools in the county. On the other hand, some people are born without even having their own baby clothes or nurseries, being evicted, and sent to rough schools with low graduation rates and test scores. So for many, the low wage life was the only option.
If only the wage range was much smaller. Professional athletes have a wage of something in the thousands per hour, while the people who work at their stadiums and arenas make around five dollars per hour. Both parties are trying to live the same life, but one is much easier than the other.

500 Word Essay, "My Low Wage Life"

Joshua Ronen
11/1/09
Writing in the New Media
Marc Bousquet
3:40 PM T/TR

Research Hypertext: Living the Low Wage Life

----->David Shipler’s The Working Poor: Invisible in America, brings about several intriguing, yet important topics plaguing the streets of the USA today. Those very topics are: poverty, unemployment, and little to no education. The poverty and unemployment can be specific to older age groups or younger ones, but both age groups have trouble whether it is because of a disability or not being a legal immigrant of the USA. Those illegal (or legal) immigrants that cross the border know the most of the low-wage jobs offered in the US that are the same in their home countries pay at lot more (well not necessarily “a lot” more, but more than they are used to earning-like in sweatshops around the globe that manufacture college apparel). Most of fear of being deported. But, the main reason why a plethora of illegal immigrant workers come to the USA is for better job opportunities is to put food on the table and put clothes on the bodies of their families and a shelter over their heads. Most are willing to overcome the fear of being deported and try to live some semblance of a normal life in America under the “watchful eye” of the United States Federal Government. As for education, a Bachelor’s Degree doesn’t get a person very far anymore in the corporate world, but what about people that haven’t had the opportunity to even graduate from high school? What kind of jobs can they take? As I examine these ideas that are prevalent in the USA, I also can make some connections to them in my own life.

----->At my synagogue as a junior in high school, I took a class called L’Taken. This class highlighted the connections between multi-faceted Corporate America and Judaism. We studied and researched “Kosher” clothes, immigrants who worked for low wages to get by and were treated unfairly by their employers, and the juvenile court system. In this case specifically, I would like to talked about the things I learned about the immigrants who worked for low wages to get by and how they were treated unfairly by their employers at the same time. The L’Taken program, taught by Rabbi Melanie Aron, the head rabbi at my synagogue, gave the students the opportunity to meet with people who faced working conditions much like the type I mentioned. But, we soon came to learn that this was not all. There were horrid working conditions paired with the fact that the employers would not pay the workers for any work they did over time. In some cases, even health care became a huge issue. Some jobs were cutting down on wages and could not offer any health care to their employees because the respective companies that they worked for weren’t making much money at all. If employees every got injured on the job, they had to work with that injury because they did not have enough money to even go to their local clinics to get some minor help (even at that). This problem in the low-wage work place that the US faces is preposterous and needs to be stopped. The workers that are working for low wages do not need to be affected any more then they already are. There need to be a strict set of laws set up for low wage working institutions around the US that include and promote health care and safe-working conditions. A healthy employee has no reason not to wake up in the morning to go make money for their loved ones, no matter how little it may be. However, an injured employee does have reasons, he or she needs the money, but doesn’t want to risk getting injured any further because he or she can’t see a doctor in the first place. It is best for these workers to know that there is a happy medium in the workplace, somewhere where they can come to work, earn their living (no matter how big or how little), and go home happy knowing that if they ever get into a tight situation at work there will always be someone to help them out of it.

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