7 Days @ Minimum Wage: ‘I’m Just Working to Survive’

by James Parks, Oct 27, 2006

For some people, life on the minimum wage is a constant struggle to keep from having to sleep on the streets. Meet Chris Peters, who goes out every morning at 3:30 or 4 to try and find a day job that will pay him enough to eat and pay for the $35-a-night hotel room he lives in.

Peters tells his story in the fifth installment of the video blog (vlog) ”7 Days at Minimum Wage.” He says he spends most of the day at temp agencies that specialize in hard labor waiting to get a job. On the vlog, he relates what happened on one job:

Last night I worked for a Starbucks truck unloading milk and pastries for nine hours and I brought home $39. My hotel room costs $35 a night. Usually when I go to work, I hope I can get eight hours. Basically, I’m just working to survive, mostly just to have someplace to sleep so I ain’t gotta be on the streets.

The vlog, which is running at http://sevendaysatminimumwage.org/ from Oct. 23–30, is sponsored by the AFL-CIO and ACORN. Hosted by comedienne Roseanne Barr, it features interviews with seven workers describing life at or near the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, which has not been raised since 1997.

In the opening of today’s blog, Barr points out that during the same time that the minimum wage has been frozen, there have been more billionaires created in the United States than ever before.

The middle class is being dismantled and fast joining the ranks of the working poor.

The vlog clearly is having an impact. Early yesterday, less than an hour after Jessica’s story was posted on the vlog, a prospective employer contacted the producer of the piece and offered the long-suffering mother of four an interview for a better job. The producer referred the offer to Jessica.

Frustrated by the congressional refusal to acknowledge that $5.15 an hour is too little to live on, the AFL-CIO union movement has spearheaded the America Needs a Raise campaign to raise the minimum wage at the state and federal levels. The campaign has provided momentum to put the issue on the ballot Nov. 7 in six states—Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio.

Peters says the ballot box may be the only way to fix the minimum wage:

If we can get enough people out in November to vote, then not only me, but all the people who are hurting can make a life for themselves and if they have a family, it can help them out, too.

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