Working Poor: Just Getting By

As is often the case with holidays, too often we forget the true meaning of Labor Day. Did you know that Canada, the U.S., Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone and the Virgin Islands all celebrate Labor Day the first Monday in September?Of course it was originally set aside (1882 U.S., 1894 Canada) to honor ordinary working people, but today it is often just thought of as a day off from work, a day for sales, for one last summer picnic or one last effort to get those summer projects completed.

It is right that we honor working people on Labor Day but we need to also bring more honor, respect and dignity to those who alternately sweat/freeze it out in unconditioned or unheated factories or shops all year long. We need to be grateful for those who stand on their feet for eight or more hours at a time, doing the same thing all day long, so that we can have cars, refrigerators and clothing. We need to be courteous to the maids who clean up messes from hangovers in motels, the waiters and waitresses who don't get minimum wage unless we tip, the clerks who must pick up, hang up and fold the clothing or towels or dishcloths that we fish through in the discount store.

Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich undertook an experiment to find out what it feels like to labor in these kinds of jobs and to see if one can actually get by and find affordable housing on the wages that are paid for entry-level jobs. Out of her experiences, she wrote a book that became a New York Times bestseller, Nickel and Dimed, (Henry Holt & Co., 2001) and she chronicles in dollar detail her undercover journey through the blue/pink collar world working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide and a salesperson at a large discount chain.

Now, it is one thing to try this lifestyle as an experiment or undercover assignment and quite another when this is your life-a huge difference Ehrenreich readily admits. While the book is useful as insight into this working world (she calls the category the "working poor"), it does not substitute for being there or experiencing it yourself.

While I was in the middle of this book, I encountered a 40-something woman who was living the book at our church's free clothing closet. She had just left her husband and was temporarily living at the shelter for abused spouses. She had lined up two jobs (impossible to save up enough money for a rent deposit on just one low paying job) but was unable to go to work the first day because all she had for clothing were the worn sweat pants and shirt she had on when she left home. "I hope I don't lose my job but I told him I had to get some clothes first, and I know he likes me so I think I'll be all right" she said as she hunted for appropriate dress slacks and jeans she could wear on the job. "I want to save up enough for rent."

Indeed, finding housing that was affordable and not 45 minutes away from a job was the other major theme in Ehrenreich's book. She took rooms in motels, rent-by-the-week places, and stayed in a trailer park that was also a nest for crack and crime. Sometimes she couldn't sleep because she feared someone breaking through a barely-locked door or curtainless window. Most of the places available to her for work in entry level jobs (the motels, restaurants, chain stores) were in nice suburbs that were too far from the cheapest housing usually available in a city's downtown area. (It was always a trade off of "Do I drive further and burn more gas to get cheaper housing, or live closer at a higher rent?" Sometimes the trade off equation also had to factor in exhaustion: can I work two jobs and still stay awake to do a 45-minute commute in between or at the end of the day?)

If you work in a job that is long on hours, long on your feet, or long on service but short on pay, respect or decent bosses, I hope you will know that some people do appreciate what you do. Our society and economic structure would fall apart if you didn't do what you do. Thank you, and have a good Labor day, even if (as I know many will) you have to work.

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Contributed by Melodie Davis from her weekly columnANOTHER WAY (http://www.thirdway.com/aw/).For information on using Another Way in a local newspaper, contact:ANOTHER WAY, 1251 Virginia Ave., Harrisonburg, VA 22801-2497; or call1-800-999-3534; fax at 540-434-5556; or email me at:Melodie@mennomedia.org