LABOR DAY
Many families discover minimum wage can’t cover minimum needs

The Toledo Blade
By JULIE M. McKINNON, BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
Article published Monday, September 5, 2005

Bret Witcher, 8, his mother, Jennifer Witcher, her sister, Trisha Sharp, and Ms. Sharp's daughter, Kaylee Miller, 2, decided to live together so the families could pay the bills. ( THE BLADE/LORI KING )

MONROE, Mich. — Working part-time for $5.75 an hour at Wendy’s restaurant, the best Jennifer Witcher could do was meet living expenses for herself and her two boys in their Monroe apartment, but even covering the basics depended on how many hours she was given a week.

Her younger sister, Trisha Sharp, and her 2-year-old daughter moved in so they could pool resources to pay bills, and Ms. Sharp kicked in money from the part-time $6.50-an-hour job at Family Dollar that she started in July. When the apartment’s electricity was cut off a month ago, they were able to get help with paying the utility and for groceries from Catholic Charities of Monroe County.

But when the clutch on Ms. Witcher’s car went out in mid-August, she couldn’t afford to get it fixed, causing the 30-year-old to quit her job at Wendy’s. She has since been searching for work within walking distance, living on what her 21-year-old sister has been able to provide.

"We just have to take whatever job we can get," Ms. Witcher said.

While residents through northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan are celebrating summer’s last hurrah this Labor Day weekend, others are struggling to get by on low-income jobs.

Transportation woes, child-care expenses, health-care gaps, a lack of education or training, and other issues often make tenuous means even tougher to manage.

To stay above the federal poverty level, a household with two adults and two children must make $19,157 a year, far above what Ms. Sharp can make at Family Dollar even if she is lucky enough to be scheduled for 40 hours every week.

Still, her $6.50-an-hour job is better than what others have been able to find.

Nationwide last year, 2 million workers made no more than $5.15 an hour, which is the federal minimum wage. That includes 125,000 people in Ohio, or 3.8 percent of the hourly work force, and 90,000 people in Michigan, or 3.1 percent of the work force, government figures show.

To meet a basic budget in Toledo last year, a two-parent, two-child family of four needed to make $36,889, equivalent to $17.74 an hour in one full-time position, according to a report by Community Research Partners in Columbus.

That’s far more than any job Ramon Salazar III has been able to secure since moving from Texas to Toledo two years ago.

Mr. Salazar, who has lived with relatives, stayed in shelters, or occasionally slept outdoors since moving, has worked at various places and recently got a $6-an-hour textile factory job near downtown Toledo.

The divorced 36-year-old was employed as an Armed Forces Radio disc jockey while in the Army years ago, but he hasn’t been able to find a comparable civilian job in either Texas or Ohio.

He was trained as a medical assistant in Texas, but he can’t use that certification — for which he owes $6,000 — in Ohio.

In the 'wrong place'

Mr. Salazar doesn’t have money to go to school, much less get a car.

"I came here looking for opportunity, and basically it looks like I came to the wrong place," he said.

"It looks like jobs are leaving here faster than I left Texas," he said. Jobs are expected to be added in the Toledo area in coming years, but most will be low-paying, shows one recent study done by two local professors for the Lucas County Work Force Investment Board.

Of the 50 fastest-growing occupations in the Toledo area through 2012, only six have annual wages above the current local average of $36,087.

In fact, the average among the 50 fastest-growing occupations is $24,170 a year, according to the study by Neil Reid of the University of Toledo and Michael Carroll of Bowling Green State University. "It’s not a very optimistic picture for northwest Ohio," Mr. Reid said.

Dail Prucka gets some help from Trisha Sharp, who is trying to survive on her $6.50-an-hour job at Family Dollar in Monroe. ( THE BLADE/LORI KING )

Topping the list are cashiers, who currently make $15,420 a year on average.

Next are food preparers and servers, who make $14,500 a year on average, according to the study.

Wal-Mart, a retailer with typically lower wages, was Ohio’s top employer last year, with 42,800 employees, state figures show. Meanwhile, General Motors Corp., which pays factory workers $26 an hour, had only half as many workers. GM is the state’s sixth-largest employer.

The lack of a high school diploma has limited opportunities for Christina Kohn of Toledo. She started working at Kroger for $6 an hour about the time her marriage broke up 1½ years ago.

She lost custody of her children about a year ago and has been unable to keep up with bills, even with $7.15-an-hour jobs first at McDonald’s and then at Speedway.

"I can’t keep a roof over their heads," said the 23-year-old, who has been living with friends and looking for work again. "I can’t keep the bills paid."

She added: "It was like trading off: Which bill do I pay? And that was a full-time job."

Grocery giveaways

Ms. Kohn recently went to the Aurora Gonzalez Community and Family Resource Center in South Toledo for a food basket, one of several stops where people in need go for grocery giveaways.

People know what days food is being given out at different stops, and they keep track of what they can get at each, said Diana Ortega, supervisor of the center’s outreach programs.

"We are lucky enough to give them meat, and they appreciate that," Ms. Ortega said.

Child care is the biggest concern for single working mothers, said Pam Gaich of Bowling Green, whose 11-year-old son, Zachary, is disabled.

"It doesn’t matter how much you make or how little you make," she said.

Ms. Gaich quit her $12-an-hour managerial job at Meijer about two years ago and filed for bankruptcy, abandoning a challenging but stress-filled job to better care for her son.

She gave up the Perrysburg house and vehicles she owned, moving to Bowling Green for cheaper rent and utilities and getting a $6-an-hour clerk job at the Salvation Army thrift store.

Woodlane School started an after-care program about 1½ years ago, making it easier for Ms. Gaich to work 20 hours a week. The change, she said, was worth it.

Other lifestyle changes throw people for a loop.

Heather Smith, 22, of Monroe moved back in with parents after filing for divorce this year and returned to work as a clerk in food service. Though she makes $6 an hour, she has a job she enjoys and flexible hours, so she can attend divorce hearings while still working close to full time.

Ms. Smith was able to pay off much of her credit-card debt before the separation, but a $600 bill from an emergency room visit, car insurance payments, vehicle problems, and other issues loom.

Her parents have been helping her out, but college isn’t an option until she can pay off mounting bills, she said.

No health insurance

"I think that I’m getting ahead, and then something happens," said Ms. Smith, who has no health insurance.

Medicaid has been a lifesaver for Monroe sisters Ms. Witcher and Ms. Sharp, who has to pay for part of her daughter’s dental work and for some of her own care while working.

Ms. Sharp got a job within walking distance from their apartment because, like her sister’s, her car is unreliable. Getting money together for rent has been the women’s most important concern in recent days.

Their next juggling act may involve paying for child care, since their schedules may overlap after Ms. Witcher starts working again.

She recently let her estranged husband take their younger son to live with him temporarily.

"Every day, it’s something new," she said.

Ms. Witcher spent $55 from her last check to get school clothes at Wal-Mart for her 8-year-old son, Bret, and the sisters shop at garage sales and thrift stores.

Still, Ms. Sharp isn’t sure how she can keep up with her rapidly growing toddler, Kaylee Miller.

"She’s just going to have to wear clothes that are too small sometimes," she said with a shrug.

Said Ms. Sharp, "We just make sure we got toilet paper, paper towels, dish soap, shampoo, soap. OK, we go without paper towels a lot."

Contact Julie M. McKinnon at: jmckinnon@theblade.com or 419-724-6087.