Support Fla. workers, back Amendment 2
Election Day is just a few days away, and like somany Floridians, I am counting down-day-by-day. But that’s not the only deadline I am counting toward. Like millions of Floridians, the date that is also ringing in my ears is Nov. 1, when rent is due.
I have the nextweek or so tomake sure I have enough to afford my sky-high rent. While our state hasmade progress by approving eviction protections, those protections are running out and even before the pandemic, itwas a struggle to pull the funds together.
What we really need is to raise wages in Florida andmake our economy more fair for more working people. That’s why I’m voting yes on Amendment 2.
As an essential worker at Popeyes in Fort Lauderdale, this pandemic has been a financial nightmare. I only make $10 an hour, so I had to take on a second job as a cashier at DTLR to helpmake ends meet. Even with two full-time jobs, I can’t afford to live onmy own with the high cost of living in Florida.
Just a few months ago, my home became my doctor’s office. On July 10, I celebrated my 24th birthday not with a cake, but locked inmy bedroom, sick with COVID19. Then my sister got sick too. For the next month, we didn’t have an income because she lost her job andmy employer did not provide paid sick leave, including during the pandemic.
Like the 770,000 Floridians who have tested positive for this deadly virus, we were scared for our lives and for our futures. Without paid sick leave and enough savings, it wasn’t just COVID that threatened us— we could have ended up without electricity, running water or a roof over our heads.
I have been homeless before, moving from one friend’s couch to the next. That was before this deadly virus, but itwas still when Florida had an unsurvivable minimumwage of $8.56 an hour. In fact, Florida’s minimumwage has only grown by about three and a half dollars in the last 20 years.
Nowadays, essential workers— including fast-food, higher education, airport, hospital, janitorial and nursing home employees— are risking our lives for an unlivable wage. Others have been laid off or furloughed because of the pandemic and had nothing to fall back on because our paychecks were always too small for us to save a penny. But we’re not accepting this status quo that treats essential workers like we’re disposable. Our votes are essential, just like our work and our lives.
Floridians have the power to come together this November to approve Amendment 2, the $15 minimumwage initiative, whichwould gradually raise the minimumwage from$8.56 an hour today by one dollar each year, and eventually to $15 an hour by 2026. Although this bill was proposed before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Florida Policy Institute, “the first minimum wage was created amidst just such a crisis more than 80 years ago with the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act — the Great Depression.”
A$15 minimum wage would be life-changing for 2.5 million Floridians whowould get a raise as a result of Amendment 2. More than a million families would be lifted out of poverty, and studies have shown the increases don’t cause the severe job losses predicted by some.
Amendment 2would beat back the crises of poverty and structural racism that essential workers of color have already been dealing with for years, and which have only gotten worse for Black and brown workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And it would mean I could save up some money for hard times like this, get a place ofmy own or save up to purchase a car. Higherwages would provide a sense of security, rather than dread as millions of Floridians count downthe days until the end of each month.
Without a livable wage, we can’t pay the rent or put money back into our communities. Increasing the minimumwage will provide an added layer of financial protection for essential workers who have been impacted by COVID-19. Workers likeme are raising our voices loud and clear. Our elected leaders’ response to this crisis should center workers of all races, our families and our communities. Andwe will keep our voices raised to build a path forward to an economy and policies that work for all of us, all the time.
Desiree Kimbrough is a member of the Fight for $15 and a Union. For the last six years, she has worked at a Popeyes in Miami. For more information about the coalition, go to: FloridaFor15.com.