What $15/hour means for mom
Buffalo: When New York City cooks and cashiers walked off their jobs at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King 21/2 years ago, it felt like the first time people’s eyes were really opened to what it’s like living on a fast-food wage. With each new strike, workers in more cities joined in. I was one of them. I think the Fight for $15 spread as much as it did because so many people are so desperate. I owe an impossible amount of money to National Fuel, due any day. I’m constantly worried my 11-month-old daughter and I are going to wind up on the street. I have no choice but to rely on food stamps and the Home Energy Assistance Program. I don’t want to get public assistance, but the alternative would be not eating or living in my car. It’s a pretty messed-up system that lets companies the size of McDonald’s get away with paying their employees so little that they live in poverty, and regular people have to make up for it in taxes.
I’m glad it’s starting to change. Companies like IKEA, Gap and Walmart have all started paying more. And cities as big as Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles all have a $15 minimum wage.
I’m most excited about what’s happening here in New York. Gov. Cuomo appointed a fast-food wage board that can raise our pay to $15, and last week I told them what that would mean in my life.
Now, I take home $278 a week. I have to pay for rent, utilities and a phone bill. Those add up to $1,004 a month. There is nothing left for food, car payments or clothes for my little girl, who gets bigger daily.
With a $15-an-hour wage, all of that would change. I’m not talking about lobster dinners, but at least we wouldn’t need food stamps. I’d actually have money in my pocket to spend on things like decent food and some new clothes. So instead of taking from the economy, I’d finally be contributing. And I wouldn’t feel so desperate.
Shaun’Vay Vaughn