Survival on minimum wage

Every Wednesday afternoon, junior Andrea Wilkinson scrambles back and forth between the stuffy kitchen of the Woodmoor Pastry Shop and the throngs of impatient customers waiting at the register. She hurries to complete each shopper's orders while dealing with a litany of complaints from her dissatisfied manager. After scurrying around for almost five hours, she is finally dismissed from her job at 8:30 p.m. - and all for a meager $25.

Wilkinson is one of approximately 1.1 million American young adults ages 16 to 25 who work for near-minimum wage or less, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Progressive Maryland, the largest grassroots advocacy organization in the state, is currently working with Senate President Mike Miller and Economic Matters Chairman Delegate Dereck Davis to pass legislation that would raise Maryland's $5.15 per hour minimum wage rate by one dollar. According to a March 25 article in The Washington Post, the new bill would affect about 55,300 Marylanders, more than half of whom are under 25. Moreover, this increase would have a particularly significant effect at Blair, where students like Wilkinson work for several hours each week on minimal pay to help themselves and their families make ends meet.

Battle for change

Wilkinson says supports the legislation and states that the government has a responsibility to pay its citizens enough to compensate for rising prices in Maryland. She has worked approximately 30 hours per week on minimum wage for the past year and continues to believe that she has a responsibility to her household to continue making money. "There are six people in my family. I have to support myself and pay for everything on my own, but my paycheck is not enough," she says.

Because of the low wages she receives at the bakery, Wilkinson has applied for other, higher-paying jobs. She has been unsuccessful, she says, because of her young age and lack of experience. She says that her meager pay of about $120 per month is not even to cover the $200 she must pay each month for her car insurance, phone bill and all other personal expenses. "It's really stressful because I work a lot of hours and I don't get much money," she says. "Usually, I have to babysit extra on weekends just to pay off my bills."

On the other hand, Wilkinson's employer, manager Joanna Gray, believes that the current minimum wage standards are fair for the first few months of an employee's job. She says that it is wrong for the government to force small-business owners to start off students who have never worked before on high pay only to find out that the students are invaluable and irresponsible. Instead, she believes that the worker's wage should be increased over time after the student is thoroughly trained and becomes more experienced. "Ninety-nine percent of the students who come in here to work can't even count change," she says.

Senior Nena Perry-Brown also supports the new legislation even though she enjoys her job despite the near-minimum wage she receives. For $5.50 per hour, Perry-Brown works approximately 20 hours per week at the CD Game Exchange. Perry-Brown believes that an increase in minimum wage would especially benefit teenagers, like herself, who are trying to save money for college. "There's no way people can be expected to make a living with so little money," Perry-Brown says. She states, however, that working for little pay teaches her about responsibility and will help her transition into more difficult jobs in the future. She plans to keep her job even through college because "the job is really relaxed and I'm doing something I really enjoy doing."

How the bill came about

The proposed legislation to increase minimum wage originated from the 2002 Living Wage bill, which would have required for-profit companies with a state contract to pay workers on those contracts enough money to feed their families without Food Stamps, according to the Progressive Maryland web site. Even though the bill passed through both houses of the Maryland legislative branch, Governor Robert Ehrlich vetoed it last year.

Instead of overriding Ehrlich's veto, Miller proposed the current bill that would raise the minimum wage standards by one dollar, according to Tom Hucker, executive director of Progressive Maryland. Earlier this year, the bill passed both houses of the Maryland General Assembly but was vetoed by Ehrlich last May. Now, Hucker says that Progressive Maryland is working with several interest groups to override Ehrlich's veto and help "hundreds of thousands of families that need money for food, rising cost of gas and the rising cost of rent."

Opponents of the minimum wage increase, including the Chamber of Commerce and Commission, argue that wages should be set in the competitive free market and not by the state government, according to the Maryland Chamber of Commerce web site. An increase in minimum wage could lead to raised prices, job cuts or fewer employee benefits.

Common sense

Sam Lock, the owner of CD Game Exchange, supports the increase in minimum wage with the exception of new workers who should be evaluated for the first few months before receiving a higher pay. He estimates that if he paid all of his employees $7 per hour, he would have to spend about $200-$300 more per week to just to cover the employees' wage. Instead, he believes that an employee's attitude and dedication should be assessed by the manager before any changes to the wages should be made. "As a small business owner, [minimum wage] gives a good opportunity for employers to see the employee's work ethics," he says. "I can't start someone at $7 only to find out that they're lazy."

Hucker disagrees with Lock and emphasizes the impossibility of the current minimum wage standards in Maryland. With $5.50 per hour, full-time workers earn barely over $10,000 per year, and even with the one dollar increase, a full-time worker would make only about $12,000 per year. He states that an employer has the obligation to recognize the needs students who have to support themselves and pay them a decent wage for their hard work and dedication. "It all comes down to whether you reward work, or you don't respect people who are working hard for a living," he says.

Hucker also believes that employers should pay employees more than the minimum wage in order to maintain a hard-working and loyal staff. "There are some employers who realize that a dedicated workforce with people who are loyal to the job and not constantly looking for other work requires more pay," he says.

Such was the case for senior Gabriela Diaz, who quit her job at the Woodmoor Pastry Shop only two months after she started. She says that her pay was not enough to support herself and fund her college tuition, so she applied to several jobs with higher pay. When she finally found one that pays $7 per hour, she left the bakery immediately.