Low-Wages

In my every day life, low-wage workers surround me. I see them working at restaurants, gardening in front of school, and cleaning at hotels. The relationships I have with them are very superficial, because I really don’t know any low-wage workers personally. But, my deepest connection to low-wage workers is my connection with the ones that work are on the ranch my family owns. There are about eight workers and their families that live on the ranch. All of them are immigrants from Mexico and only one actually speaks English. Ranching is one of the most difficult jobs there is, not to mention that our ranch still uses equipment from the fifties, making the job that much more difficult. They work no matter the weather. It could be one hundred and twenty degrees out, and they’ll still work, because the cows aren’t going to go away when it’s too hot or too cold out. They work long hours for minimum wage, much of which is sent back to their family members that are still back in Mexico. And, they need to be ready all the time in case there is a problem in the middle of the night that needs to be fixed immediately, like a cow escaping and walking on to the free way or the ammonia machine breaks, which would make all the milk go bad. Their job is as difficult, if not more difficult than any other job out there, and they are only really getting half a minimum wage paycheck for it.

I’ve worked on the ranch, but most of the time I’m working on my own. My relationship with these guys consists of the occasional head nod or wave because that’s our only way to actually communicate. My brother, who speaks very little Spanish, is the ranch manager. About a year ago he had to fire a worker for crashing a tractor. He struggled with it for a really long time before actually doing it because this guy losing his job has bigger implications than most people. This job is the only hope for the future generations of this man’s family. He is attempting to live the American dream and one accident with a tractor may have ended it.

My personal connection to these men is that my grandparents’ wellbeing is reliant on their hard work and effort, even in the most difficult conditions. It’s strange that these people I hardly know and can’t even communicate with play such an important role in my life, but then again I’m sure there are many low-wage workers that have major impacts on my life that go unnoticed or unrecognized.