Working in Paradise cont.

The tourism industry is the lifeline of the Hawaiian island economy. Increased vacationing means increased profit and consumption and a lot of happy business owners. However for their employees, it means the exact opposite. With more mouths to feed and new affluent attitudes to deal with, the tourism industry workers are put under an insurmountable amount of stress.
I think a question that all of our projects ask in a way is to find out what life is truly like for the low wage workers we are researching. More specifically, what the past, present and future holds for our chosen industries’ workers. Not only do I want to give a real account of what financial troubles and challenges these people face, but I want readers to reach a sense of empathy and understanding of a situation outside of their perspective.
Not until the final conclusion of my 2nd website did I realize how effective imagery can be when used correctly. Although we’ve gone over several examples of web design, I’ve found that sometimes the “dos” and “don’ts” don’t necessarily cut it for me. I want to experiment with Xeroxing artwork as a means of visual representation and really incorporate a traditional form of artistry into the project. Not only can pictures paint a thousand words, but can aid in allowing the reader to look at your point of view in a visual manner. Perhaps videos will work, perhaps not and I think that interviews will be difficult to get seeing as I’m a little far from home. However, having friends that have all worked jobs in the tourism industry and having the experience myself can really help. I’m thinking of incorporating my interviews in the form of quotes that are displayed largely throughout the page. Finally, I’m thinking of having links in my text that are connected to YouTube videos and perhaps some music to go along with the page.

MY LOW-WAGE LIFE PROPOSAL

My hypertext will be about the lives of wait staff and what they experience behind the scenes of a restaurant and in their lives outside of the restaurant. I will include topics such as how the serving salary had a different impact on my coworkers than it did on me, struggles that my general wait staff go through and points of views from servers of different ages.

For one of her jobs, Ehrenreich worked at a restaurant and she documented many experiences that I can relate to and would be helpful for creating my hypertext. I think it is very important to bond with your coworkers and create a type of support group. “If one of us is feeling sick or overwhelmed, another one with “bev” a table or even carry trays for her,” (37) shows that Ehrenreich also realized that it’s very helpful to establish a support system with your coworkers. Ehrenreich also stated that she wanted her customers to have the closest to a fine dining experience that they can, even though the restaurant was just a diner. I can incorporate this idea into my hypertext, relating it to the topic of quality of service that wait staff strive for. This also relates to the topic of how wait staff are able to conceal or dissipate their annoyances with frustrating customers, yet still treat them with the uppermost respect.

Schlosser brought up the concept of teenagers who try to balance (or not balance) their time between working and school. Elisa Zamot worked 30-35 hours per week at McDonalds and fell behind in school because she was working too many hours and was not getting enough sleep (80). Another topic that I want to cover in my hypertext is about high school students who become waiters and who try to balance their time between school and work. I can relate to this because I worked as a waitress during my senior year of high school and it was tough to juggle my time, especially when I worked on weekdays.

Shipler’s work can be related to the aspect of my hypertext that is about the lives of my coworkers. I worked at a mediocre seafood restaurant, with a serving salary that is minimum wage. With the added bonus of tip money, working as a server at this restaurant is a decent job. However, many of my coworkers had to commute from homes that were an hour to two hours away. The extra expenditures on gas money would build up and it took away a significant amount from their paychecks. This relates to the point that Shipler made, “people can get jobs that aren’t low wage but there are other expenses that go with it” (10).

300 word proposal thing

This research hypertext is going to be about my mother’s experience as an immigrant to the United States. Obviously the direct connection to me is that she is my mother. I want to express the struggles that she had to go through as a new member of the labor force as an immigrant as well as trying to raise children to the best of her abilities. The main perspective that I want to express is the perspective of a child hearing this story and being raised in this environment. I want to also incorporate the perspective of my mother which will in a way represent the mothers struggling. Though there are many different stories and events that occur for every mother, I plan to best associate it with my mother’s experience with the majority. The web design will have a different page for a different topic. I want to have a page in which I just first talk about her experience as a low wage worker. Then I will have another page as a low wage worker with a child. Things changed after she had her first child. Priorities changed, schedules changed, jobs changed. I then want to add a page in which two immigrant workers met and fell in love , got married and become a family of four. Yet again things change with the fact that there are two working individuals and two children to rise. A page that I want to add that I want to be one of my more emphasized page is when my dad got injured at work, received a limited amount of benefit, leaving my mom to work alone, to take care of 6 people including herself. Another huge part of my webpage is the perspective of the children (my perspective of this whole situation). I want to research and explain the many different outcomes possible for children raised in low wage environments.

300 Word Proposal Thingy:)

I plan to go about this project using many different techniques to create an overall, effective hypertext on the low-wage, waitressing staff in restaurants.

Like Shlosser and Ehrenreich, I plan to exploit the restaurant business, but go about doing so without doing any harm. Both of these authors cleverly use perspective and point of view to accurately portray their standpoint. Also, like Shippler and Ehrenreich, I plan to incorporate how the low-wage, waitressing staff has to constantly battle to make ends meat, while slaving away to make their customers and managers happy.

Like Ehrenreich, I know I have a personal connection to my topic. I plan to use that knowledge and experience and weave it effectively into my hypertext. I think this will give me, also, a leg-up on certain opportunities - like interviews with my current co-workers who are dealing with these struggles. I plan to change the name of the restaurant I am employed, considering it's one-of-a-kind, and I also am choosing to change the names of all of my co-workers and managers. I do not want to hurt or do harm to any of these people, so I will have to make sure I keep some descriptions but not go overboard.

I also plan to go about this hypertext through some types of medium. On top of text, I want to maybe to voice interviews without the video, just to make sure I don't cause any problems. I can get videos of waitressing in general from YouTube, as well.

The points of view that I plan on trying to capture are my own connection to the restaurant business, the waitressing staff, the managers, and the consumers. I think if I am able to focus on these four standpoints, then my hypertext should be a success. I plan to relate all of these standpoints back to the original topic of low-wage, waitressing and how they are inter-connected with different influence. The waitressing staff, specifically, will have multiple branches that address their time at work, why they go to work for such low-wages, and after work is over for the day.

:) :) :)
My Job- 1. What I noticed. 2. Me vs. Them

Waitresses- 1. Time at Work. 2. Reasons for working there at a low-wage. 3. After work is over.

Mangers- 1. Interactions with Staff. 2. Expectations of Staff

Consumers - 1. Needs. 2. Looking down on staff.

My Low Wage Life

As an active student-athlete during high school who maintained a very busy schedule, summer seemed like a great opportunity to relax and enjoy myself.  However, for the last three summers I have been a working man.  After my sophomore and junior years at Bellarmine College Prep I worked in a construction yard, handling and preparing loads that were to be shipped out to construction sites.  My father is a good friend of John Albanese, president of Jos. J. Albanese, Inc., and John basically did my father a favor by hiring me.  Before my first day I met with John, and he promptly told me I was “the grunt of the shit.”  As a puny 16 year-old you can imagine how intimidated I was by his pep talk.  My co-workers consisted of two buddies of mine who also were family friends of John and were in the same situation as I, while the other 20 employees I worked with directly were all Mexican.  It was difficult at first, being a privileged white boy driving a nice car to work, getting dirty looks from all my co-workers, but eventually I got to know most of them and earned their respect through my hard work and dedication to the job.  I worked from 9 AM to 4 PM most days, and made 9 dollars an hour.  However, I also participated on the varsity football team, and workouts were held from 7 to 8:30 AM every day, with afternoon practices three times a week from 3 to 5 PM.  On those days I had afternoon practice, I would wake up at 6 AM for football, get out of workouts at 8:30, head straight to the construction yard for 5 hours of work, then back to the football field for practice.

Looking back, I am not quite sure how I survived the grueling dog days of summer.  My buddy Kevin, who began the summer on the same schedule as I, promptly quit football and stayed with the job.  The money was what kept me going.  It felt refreshing to be able to make my own spending money for the first time in my life.  My parents were great about giving me gas money, so that I could watch the fruits of my labor grow.  By the end of the first summer at Albanese Construction, I made $2,000, which lasted me all of junior year, with some money left over going into the next summer of work.  As junior year ended, it was time to go back to the yard for round two of being “the grunt of the shit”.  Kevin had enough the first summer, so it was just me and a friend two years older than I, Jeff Alves, who kept the gringo going at J.J.A. Construction.  Before I started my second summer, I met with John again and politely asked for a raise from my first year’s wage.  He agreed to give me a raise of one dollar, and I gladly accepted $10 an hour for my hard work.  Football and lacrosse were more of a priority going into senior year, so work kind of went on the back burner in a sense.  I made about the same amount, $2,000, as I did my first summer.

After two summers in the yard, I had persevered all I could take.  After I graduated from high school, I told my father I deserved to work somewhere other than a filthy, grimy, musty construction yard.  An uncle of mine had worked at an upscale restaurant in Los Gatos during his high school days, and was good family friends of the owners.  So, this past summer, with the help of my uncle, I worked as a host at a restaurant named Steamer’s.  I got paid $8 an hour, with tips not included.  The job was fairly easy and the waiters, cooks and other hostesses were very nice, but I could not help but be frustrated with the pay.  As it is now 3:25 and time to go to class I will promptly end my low-wage life story.

Uneducated Low Wage Workers

Working without an education can prove to be difficult. In the richest country in the world, being educated, going to college, and earning multiple degrees is often stressed toward the public who want to live securely without financial trouble. In order to secure a decent job with a reasonable pay, one must go through many years of schooling to be educated enough to handle the job and must beat out the competition of other educated individuals. The majority of Americans have become educated solely for the sake of landing a secure job and not necessarily to learn for the sake of learning. However, those individuals who aren’t lucky enough to go to school to earn that degree are stuck in poverty because of their lack of qualifications for high paying jobs.

Even though I have not experienced working without an education, I have had many close friends and family who are barely surviving through their minimum wage job. For instance, my cousin who is now a full grown adult, is barely surviving working as a minimum wage worker. A drop out of college, she never earned the degree that could have potentially changed her current lifestyle. Working many various jobs one right after the other on minimum wage has her barely able to afford the bare necessities for herself. She is lucky to have a family that allows her to live in their house without paying rent. However, without her loving family, she would be out on the streets homeless with the pay she is currently earning. While working, she is attending night classes to get a bachelors degree in hopes of landing a more secure job.

My own parents and grandparents have experienced the same thing. Coming to the United States as immigrants, my grandparents knew they would have to live with minimum wage. Since my grandparents were poor, my parents grew up poor and were not able to afford proper schooling that could have lead to higher paying jobs. Because of this, they only worked in jobs they paid minimum wage and also had the help from other family members by providing shelter and food whenever they needed it.

Many Americans are not as lucky as my family. If they work for a job that pays minimum wage, they are often left to live on the streets, barely surviving. Some of these people can be blamed for dropping out of school and not continuing their education and therefore pay the consequences of these low paying jobs. Others, however, cannot help that the fact that they are not fortunate enough to become educated and therefore have the qualifications to land a high paying job. Are uneducated low wage workers to blame for their misfortunates?

The Low Wage Life of Housecleaners

House cleaning services are notorious for their positive sense of advertising. In their commercials, peppy music plays as you watch fairly attractive maids carefully scrub the countertops or gently wipe windows--smiling the whole time, of course. Driving down the street, you might pass a brightly colored company car with four or five housekeepers bunched inside, all wearing uniforms that match the vehicle’s hue. Perhaps you’ve even heard some of their catchy slogans to further promote their services, such as “Relax, and it’s done” or “House too dirty to be seen? Call us to get it clean!” Even some of the company names have a favorable tone, like Merry Maids or Maid Brigade. But if someone attached a camera to an actual team of cleaners working in a house, I think one would find that their reality is far different from the calming scene in the commercials.

People take for granted the hardships that housekeepers have to endure on and off the job. At the homes, they have to make every inch of the house squeaky clean, digging into the grime and dirt of every toilet seat, carpet stain, or dusty shelf. Sometimes they even have to operate under the pressure of time, working as quickly as they can without missing a spot or damaging property. Breaks can even be disallowed, so they have no way of replenishing the water they lose when they sweat. Once they finish with one house, they hastily advance to the next and repeat the whole process. They come home at the end of the day with sore muscles, dehydrated bodies, and about $7-9 for every hour they worked.

My family has had house cleaners for as long as I can remember. Instead of using the larger corporations, my parents have hired individuals over the years to maintain our household once a week. Although I do not recall the housekeepers from my early childhood, I have become very fond of our current house cleaner “Dolores,” whom I have had the pleasure of knowing since middle school. Dolores and I have become quite close over the years; during her weekly visits, we converse with each other about my school work, her family, and sometimes even our love lives. But there are other topics that pop up frequently in our conversations such as her health and finances. Countless times she has related to me some new thing that she’s tried to treat her arthritis or has found fault with the expensive cell phone bill she shares with her daughter. Dolores is thankful for all that she has, but I can tell that she sometimes struggles to make ends meet, like many household cleaners.

Through this hypertext, I wish to present a personal aspect of the housecleaning industry on behalf of the hard-working cleaners and to show others that their lives are frequently surrounded by poverty and hardships.

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.

Low Wage Working

I have a direct link to the low wage workers, as I have worked for low wages before. Approximately two years ago, I decided it was time for me to get a job. I didn't need a job desperately, but all my friends had jobs, and I wanted something to keep myself occupied during the summer time. I finally got a job at Hollister, which is a retail store. I don't wear their clothes often, but I figured it would be a fun place to work.

Working at Hollister was a good experience, but not a fun job at all. In fact, I was so surprised by how draining of a job that it was that I seriously considered quitting. To add insult to injury, I was paid minimum wage and often times did not receive the number of hours that I would've liked. In short, it was not a pleasant place to work. It was very dark with incredibly loud music. I had to practically shout to communicate with customers, many of whom were quite irritated with the shopping conditions. I had to apologize for the volume and lighting at least three times a day to customers, even though those two things were obviously out of my control. Also, new employees go through very little training, and therefore do not usually know where a particular piece of clothing is shortly after a floor set change. I felt like I was at liberty to complain about all of this, especially due to the fact that I was being paid 8 dollars an hour, before taxes are taken into account. However, I quickly learned that there were other workers that had it tougher than I did.

One of the first people I met was a young man named Ryan. He was very nice to me and helped me tremendously when I first started working and didn't know much. While talking to him, I learned a great deal about his financial background. He informed me that he was working numerous jobs including Hollister. He was also working at Starbucks and Block Buster simultaneously. When I asked him why he worked so many jobs, he replied that he needed the money to pay the majority of his college tuition. Granted, he attends a junior college, which is much much cheaper than a four year university, such as Santa Clara University. Even so, I can't imagine paying my way through college, even if it is a community college. Ryan later went on to say that he would have attended a four year college if he was financially able. I suddenly felt sorry for Ryan. here I was, complaining about rude customers and darkness and volume, and then I see Ryan taking on triple of what I do just so he can get an education.

While it took time for me to realize that I was lucky, I still did not like working at Hollister. Minimum wage was not nearly enough to compensate for what employees at this store had to deal with every day, in my opinion. Here is a list of some instances where I felt like quitting:

-A mother and her daughter once came in to return a pair of shorts. Why? The leg lengths of each individual leg were not equal. Now let me take a moment to explain something. Shorts at Hollister for girls are different. I will just say this: they are not the kind of shorts that their grandmother would approve of. Anyways, I took a close look at the shorts, and there may have been a half of a centimeter difference. Regardless, the mother and daughter demanded that it be exchanged.

-A large family came up to the counter with maybe five or six pieces of clothing. I had to ring them up and take the sensor off of every single piece of clothing. When I told the family the total, they tried to use a gift card, but it had expired. The family protested that the card had been issued to them a few months ago and had not been used. I understood what happened. The card was given to the family as a holiday deal. However, in extremely small font, it says on the card that this particular type of card is only valid for thirty days. Soon after, I had about ten people in my face and complaining about the situation. I understood their rage, but what they were upset about was out of my control.

-I had an early morning shift one day beginning at 7 in the morning. My job was to construct closets and tables for the clothes to be put in. After spending all morning working on them, I was sweating from the heat of the room and ready to take a nap. My boss examined my work and said that I did about half of the closets incorrectly. I had to take them apart and do them all over again.

These are a few of many examples of why working at Hollister was pretty miserable. As unpleasant as it was, I was able to make some decent spending money, even if it was minimum wage. In addition, after hearing Ryan's story, I felt like I was lucky to be working there just to make spending money. Minimum wage working is difficult regardless of people's reasons for choosing to work in such a job, but I learned that some individuals work multiple minimum wage jobs to support themselves.

Low Wage Life

Taking care of kids is never easy. Taking care of someone else’s kids, however, is a much more difficult task. I’ve baby sat a few times, so I can say from personal experience that it’s a lot harder than it seems. However, as a teen I only did this for a short period of time, just to earn a little extra money. There are other individuals--men and women alike--who turn to taking care of children as an actual career. Part time nannies, live-in nannies, part time baby sitters, full time baby sitters, none of these jobs are ever easy. Each child has different specific needs, and every family handles situations a little differently. Being a nanny is like having children of your own, regardless of whatever socioeconomic status you may be in. From personal experience, more teens tend to lean towards the path of baby sitting--decent pay, low work hours, ideal for a teenager. It’s more the young adults and adults that lean towards nanny-ing, although I know some girls that were nannies.
Before becoming a baby sitter or a nanny, a lot of price negotiating goes on, and many factors impact this. Whether it’s a full-time or part-time job, or maybe just for occasional help, the distance between the nanny or baby sitter and the home, how many children there are, additional responsibilities that could be required, transportation (like if the nanny needs to take the children to any classes, play dates, etc.), years of experience, and other special qualifications are all factors that could play into how much the nanny gets paid. This much speculation tends to be for the older set of baby sitters/ nannies. When I was hired as a baby sitter, they offered to bring the kids to my house and told me the flat fee per hour.
It seems as though for temporary baby sitters, teens are the best option. It’s enough to make a little bit of extra money without the huge time commitment of a regular job. And even if they are consistently hired, the hours of being a baby sitter are much easier to handle. However, when the time commitment grows higher than 2-3 times a week, the baby sitter transitions into more of a nanny, and that’s when time constraints change and most teens decide to slink away from these responsibilities and parents decide to go to the older set for help.
Although the per hour pay seems to be better than average for teens, for adults $9-10 an hour is not a sustainable income. Parents should be able to either take care of their kids and maintain a job or have higher pay to their more permanent baby sitters and nannies. The reason why they were hired to begin with is because parents wanted to be able to sustain their kids by still going to work--wouldn’t it be fair to be able to help their employees like this too?

The product of their labors are quite apparent; at the grocery store, at restaurants, in clothing department stores, in our homes and other places that farm produce is required. Migrant farm laborers are an essential part to the economy and to our everyday lives. These are the people that plant the seeds, water them, protect them, pick them and allow society to eat and have other crop goods. Without farm laborers, the need for food would greatly surpass the supplies available. Yet even though these people are so important to our food supplies and other crop goods, they are underpaid and are considered the working poor. Where I come from, farming is a huge part of the community. Nearly all of the land around the town is dedicated to farming; therefore, farming has been a large part of my life. I have seen my family work tirelessly on their crops and employ numerous workers. Additionally, within a town near my own, there are a number of illegal immigrants. Therefore I feel a connection with these people and I feel like that I can explore their situation further than others.

For this project, I am going to include two stories about two workers and their different stories. The first worker will be called Jose and the second will be called Alejandro. Jose is a very hard working individual from Central Mexico. He lives with his girlfriend and their 3 children. One of the boys has been thought to have a form of autism (Although it is uncertain because they cannot afford a doctor’s visit). Additionally, he was stricken by a stroke which partially paralyzed part of his body. He works from 5 am in the morning to 5 at night, depending on the day. Yet his living conditions are deplorable. The house that he lives in is about 700 square feet. The roof is starting to cave in and there are several holes in the ceiling. The living quarters are cramped especially with several children and a girlfriend. The girlfriend does not have a job and thus she stays at home and tends to the household chores. Therefore, what Jose makes through his job, is what they have as a family to use. I will have to investigate further in order to know the actual wage that he earns. The second worker, Alejandro, is similar to Henry in the way that he has several mouths to feed and lives in tight living quarters. However, Alejandro’s wife is also from Mexico and rarely leaves in order to keep her job. Therefore, Alejandro rarely gets to see his wife, only when he travels down to Mexico to see his family. His kids all live with him and go to the local school. They believe that the kids will have a better chance at success if they attend school in America. Furthermore, Alejandro’s oldest son works with his father on the ranch. Additionally, if his son is unable to receive higher education, then he may hold the same job that his father now does.

The [Teenage] Low-Wage Life

Teenagers are always finding jobs whether it be a temporary summer job or a job that they keep throughout the school year as well. Teens’ reasons for finding jobs can also vary from pocketing some extra spending money to trying to help their parents put food on the table and a roof over their heads. For most teens living in the United States, their reason for getting a job is the former rather than the latter. Who wouldn’t want some extra spending money on the side for things such as movies, gas, and dare I say it, parties? It’s always nice to know that you have that money there to spend and even better, that you earned that money yourself. But what about those teens whose wages get stripped from them almost as soon as they earn them in order to pay for the electrical bill or the week’s dinners? How do they feel about the wages they’re earning and the way in which they’re earning them? What about teens in general and their feelings on the jobs they work and how they’re treated at these jobs? Believe it or not, basically every working teenager in the United States, and especially in other countries, is a low-wage worker. They don’t go to work making $20/hour or even $10/hour; instead, most teens (or at least most teens from where I’m from) are excited at making $8/hour. What does this say about the types of jobs that are available for teens? What about teens working in third world countries? The low-wage life isn’t an easy one, but for some teens, it’s all they know.

Many teenagers have it “easy” – they work in a decent environment with decent people (perhaps even some of their friends if they’re lucky) and get paid a decent amount of money. These teens have jobs working at such places like movie theaters, non-fast food restaurants, and retail stores. If asked about their job some will say that they love it and that the hours and the pay are perfect while others may completely disagree by saying that you’d be better off not getting a job whatsoever. However if you were to take a look at these jobs – the environment they’re in, the tasks they employ, and the benefits employees receive – you’d probably think that anyone who complains about such a job is crazy. But are such jobs really all that glamorous? Cleaning up spilled soda and ketchup off of the ground, standing on your feet for hours on end, and carrying heavy trays of food through a crowded dining hall – such activities don’t sound too attractive. Yet, when compared to working at places like McDonalds or in extreme cases, a sweatshop, I’m sure any teen would jump to be folding clothes in an air-conditioned room while chatting it up with co-workers.

There are many horror stories about teens working in low-wage jobs such as McDonalds, small diners, and other “unattractive” jobs, but personally I’ve never experienced a job like that. I have had summer jobs; however, compared to some of the work that I hear about other teens and even some of my friends doing, my “jobs” can’t really be called jobs at all. The two summer positions that I held were both clerical jobs and were honestly two of the easiest jobs I could have imagined. I sat at a desk, did some occasional scanning and filing, took one hour lunches (sometimes even a bit longer) and still got paid $8/hour. And I loved that I got paid $8/hour. One of my good friends who had started working at a local movie theater a couple years before I had even gotten my first “real” job has only gotten a $0.25 raise and I was already making $8/hour with my first job. Even more, I was working 8 hour days, earning $64/day and he was working 10-12 hours/week if he was lucky. The major difference between our jobs though was the way in which we got them. My friend went out looking for his job by talking to some of our other friends, comparing his different options while I on the other hand basically had my job handed to me. A few of my friends and I had applied for a state program called the Summer Youth Employment Program and after filling out a simple application, the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations contacted us with our positions. You could pretty much say that we were still being like kids while trying to act like adults.

The Low Wage Worker:The Invisible Janitor

Who are the invisible faces we see every day? The jobs which keep the world spic and spam while we go about our day? They work in almost every public place imaginable. They are the working force which keeps our environments live able, enjoyable, and downright clean. They are the janitors and cleaning services of the world. I’m sure everyone in schools has seen them around. We leave our plates and trash on every surface imaginable and in no time it’s clean and tidy and read to eat off of. Many of these workers speak little English and depending on where they work may or may not get a decent paycheck. Weather we respect them or not everyone has a stake on their punctuality, commitment, and work.

This topic came up when I was in high school. A lot of people decided to leave their plates and trash everywhere and it started to get on the nerves of the faculty. They implemented a lot of programs to combat this problem and really nothing happened. It had an opposite effect students got pissed to the point of even saying “Why should we clean it up, It is their job”. I always cleaned up after myself and on occasion told other to. However, this never really hit home until one of my teachers asked “How many of you even know the name of the janitors who take care of this building”. I felt terrible. They keep the school clean and I really couldn’t answer that question.

This reminded me of middle school. In my small middle school there was only one janitor for the whole school. Going to that school for well over seven years I remember how everyone knew his name. We all enjoyed talking to him and he even got us candy and helped us when we needed it. He was always happy to do his job and really made students feel at home. Remembering this experience made me feel terrible; I didn’t get to know the staff which kept the school so clean.

This experienced changed my views on the workforce in schools. I always try to say hi and thank you for all they do. Now that I’m in college it has gotten even worse. Many of us are oblivious of the janitors. We go to sleep one day and generally the next day the dorms or building are clean. Now not every janitor gets no respect or a low wage but a lot of them do. Many janitors get only about 6-7$ an hour and of course like many jobs there is a scale. 6-7$ isn’t a lot to live on. When a janitors dose his job he is rarely noticed or bothered but when he is busy or his work is lacking he is the point of everyone’s anger, even spite. A janitor is such a vital job in this American world we live in where many of us are not use to the debris of everyday life. Yet they are forgotten, mistreated, and are forced to live to the best of ability on so little.

LOW WAGE JOB - How the mom did it

As young children, we are raised to dream; strive for a successful life; have a better life then what you were raised in; be wealthy; be happy. Unfortunately there are more people that do not achieve many of these life goals then there are that do become wealthy. There are more individuals that struggle day to day living pay check to pay check , working at the minimum wage then there are workers that receive an over sufficient wage. “Money can’t buy you happiness.” Though the fact that this quote may be honest to some extent, it sure as hell is not completely true. True money cannot buy you ultimate happiness in life but it sure can pay your bills; it sure can pay for the roof over your head; it sure can buy the food you put in your mouth; it sure can buy the food that you feed your hungry children; it sure can pay for your children’s education; it sure can pay for the electricity keeping you warm at night. True money can’t make you happy, but it sure as hell can help. To all these low wage workers it all comes down to working hard every day to survive and simply praying that this ticket, this gold ticket with random numbers, is the one lottery ticket that will win millions and will take away all your depts. A situation that makes the life of low wage workers much harder, much more stressful, and seemingly much more impossible is a family. This essay will follow the experience of young women trying to have a fresh new start with nothing but hope and a will. My mother came to this country at the age of 12, her first job was babysitting. This job gave her 40 dollars throughout the span of her whole summer. At the age of 17 she got a job working at a bank and into the work force she went. She handled the combination of work and education very well, if asked, anyone could have easily said that she had a bright successful. I am not saying that her life wasn’t fulfilled because it was; she had a family of a husband two gorgeous daughters and two handsome sons, I am not saying her life was unsuccessful because it was; she raised are her kids to the best of her abilities, so far has sent one to a university and hopefully sends another one, her story is a story of triumph and success over obstacles that may seem every day and must seem possible is so many people are making it out. But I want to see you go through it all before you speak up. At the time of high school graduation my mother had to choose between education or work. Well work seemed the most instantly required because the money was needed to help my grandmother pay for bills and food. Well my mother’s first real job was working at bank for the low wage of $1.69 an hour.

Nike Sweat shops

Nike Sweatshops

Nike is arguably the most successful sports based business ever, the question that a lot of people has is how do they do it? Unfortunately the answer is that they use cheap labor is underdeveloped countries. As an athlete myself, I will be the first to admit that I can't remember the last pair of running or basketball shoes that I owned that weren't Nike products. I would also say that at least in the basketball world they are the leaders hands down. Why are they the leaders? Well for one they sign all the top athletes to multimillion dollar contracts all so they can put their name on some shoe and make it that much more sought after. This gives Nike the upper hand in the market because they can decide where the fashion is going, they decide what is cool. Aside from that they also tend to come out with new technology to make their shoes and products lighter and more comfortable, which allows them to charge a decent amount more than most of their competitors. Nike is said to have made huge changes to their workers policy and workers rights, however many organizations such as Educating for justice (EFJ) say that there is still much improvement to be made. There have been proposed bills to try to stop the import of goods that were created in sweatshops into the United States. For example, Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act attempted "Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to revise the prohibition on importing convict-made goods into the United States to make it unlawful to import into, or export from, the United States any sweatshop good("Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act." Open Congress. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2010.). The bill was proposed by Byron Dorgan to the Senate, and it was proposed by Sherrod Brown to the House of Representatives. In both the bill died in committee and did not become a law. If I had to guess it probably did not pass because it would put a good majority of big name companies in quite a pickle. If Something like that bill were to become a law someone would have to pay for it, either the consumer or the company. I am fairly confident that it would be the consumer; companies like Nike are not going to want to have more costs, that is why companies use cheap labor to begin with. However this raises the argument of how much is the mark up on their products? Undoubtedly the costs to make the shoes and other products are a small fraction of the retail price. Although, when consumers buy Nike shoes they are paying for a lot more than the cost to make the shoe. Someone has to pay for the multimillion dollar contracts that Nike pays top athletes like Lebron James, Kobe Byrant, and Tiger Woods. It's a vicious circle with really no easy answers, because Nike is in business to make money just like any other company. It is hard to make companies that have been so successful change the way they got there, however when it comes to the sweat shops they use something needs to be done.

MY low-wage life

Low wage work is a common concept for teenagers accepting a first or second job. Spending money is the primary incentive as opposed to money to pay the bills or the beginnings of a career. This, at least, was the primary incentive I had for accepting the first two jobs of my life. In my very first job as a caddy, I was introduced into a workplace that gave both financial profits as well as flexible hours. I began to wonder why I kept hearing people discuss this monster that is low wage work. That’s when I accepted my first winter position at a local health club. What I received was minimal funds and an inside view on adults in the quicksand of low wage labor. As an Operations Team Member at a local health club, I encountered adults who needed a job that meant less than nothing to me.

I have always been a punctual worker who works by the motto, “If they’re paying me I might as well do something,” which, albeit, may not be the most driven mindset, but still does imply work. However, by no means have my two beginning jobs been the most important thing on my mind. Instead, I would liken them to going to school or, more simply, a means to an end. You go to work to get the pocket change and duck out before your manager can ask you to work longer. That is until you realize the thirty-year-old single mother of seven or fifty plus post retiree that needed to return to work so that there would be food on the table. That’s when the clear-cut objectives of such a job begin to look a little murky.

I began caddying at age 12 and have continued for the past seven years. Along that time I have worked up the ranks to the top level as an honor caddy. At this level I found a normal days salary ranging between $100-250, with the maximum duration of a ten-hour day. I thought this was a normal salary from a low wage job, and began to take the work for granted. That was until last year when I started my first winter job at Lifetime Fitness health club.

It did not take a while before I adopted a new view on the life of a low-wage worker. At this new job I encountered people of all ages who completed the same back bending labor as I did for the pocket change that I could go through in a week without a second glance. I listened to the plethora of medical and financial problem that these people had to deal with while attempting to navigate an insurmountable bill to wages ratio. One common trend that I realized was that this job was by no means a career for anyone who worked it. It was simply a means to an end. Or it had been twelve years earlier when they took the job to pay the bills. Others had layoffs, children, and relationships to blame their financial need on, yet time and again I found people who hadn’t intended to hold the job longer then a year watching it turn into a lifelong career.

Factory workers

It’s the gentleman’s game as people would refer to it and it’s the sports I love to play and I feel so relaxed doing so. Tennis it’s an easy game, your objective is to hit a yellow ball over a 3 foot 6 inch net and hope the other player it’s the ball in the court or into the net. Playing this sport for as long as I can remember now the question that comes into my mind is “who is making this ball and how is the tennis ball being shaped into its structure.”

My first reaction is that all tennis equipment is being made today in China, and Japan in these factories that are horrible working conditions. I came to a conclusion that my hypothesis was true but the factories such as the Dunlop Slazenger’s are also located in South America as well. It would seem like that they want to hide from the outside public what they are doing inside the factories. Inside these factories when you past the management offices and the windows are specially made that it seal off the noise what do you really see. Machines whoop, ping, and gunshot sounds fill the area and the workers wearing their uniforms seem like specks in the landscape. One person is feeding the so called monster whenever it buzz, beeps with hunks of rubber and a consignment of clay filler or chemicals down a chute into a huge mixer below. These people are working shifts that seem not even imaginable to Americans today. Most start their work at 6am in the morning and ends 10pm with one lunch break. This factory pays about 400 pesos a day which is the equivalent to about $32. One of the most difficult jobs in the factory is connecting the two halves of the tennis ball together with the clamp. If there is a problem with the ball it is rejected which costs the factory money and the employee would probably be fired. It isn’t surprising if the whole family is working in various factories across the area and most are at a very young age working to put food on the table for the whole family. Job insecurity, and the health of these people are always plaguing the workers every turn they take. When the balls are being processed the rubber is mixed with petroleum naphthalene and the effect of this causes the room to fill with the gas that is deadly.

I have played tennis all my life since I was four and I can never stop thinking about the game. This game is changing very rapidly every day with the technology they are putting into the racquets is quite fascinating. I am really intrigued in the corporate side of tennis and I would like to pursue furthering my knowledge of this topic. Now every time I play tennis and I pop open a new can of tennis balls I can always think stop and think that people that are producing these tennis balls are risking their health to help me be entertained by playing tennis.

Restaurant Servers

My parents and I agreed that having a side job during high school would be a good opportunity for me to make some spending money and learn about a different type of responsibility. I personally did not care where I worked so long as it was not in the god-forsaken mall. Minimum wage was not a question because I was not trained or educated to work a higher paying position. I was fortunate enough to find a job as a hostess/busser/waitress depending on what was needed on each night. The restaurant, we will call it “The Grill,” was a higher class establishment with expensive wines and pricey exotic food items. I was paid minimum wage ($8.55 an hour in Washington state) plus about 20% of the servers’ tips. I worked Tuesday and Wednesday nights which were some of the slower nights at The Grill and after a four hour shift I would probably walk away with about $50 of cash tips.

My experience at The Grill was an amazing one. I felt I was overpaid for little work. It was physically demanding and stressful at times, but ultimately I was pouring waters, without ice or with a lemon for more demanding customers, and running around with coloring books and bread plates. Working at The Grill was one of the most important and eye opening experiences of my life. Developing personal relationships with the adults working there made me realize there is much more to a restaurant than what a customer may perceive. The people that serve our food daily live with financial struggles and work pressures unknown to the people ordering medium rare steaks, getting upset when the sauce is not on the side. The purpose of this project is to be a voice for the voiceless and tell the stories of the unknown inner workings of restaurants.

Although working at The Grill was a better experience than most people have earning minimum wage because it is a local, family owned establishment and with high priced foods and therefore high tips at the end of each night. However, it provided a less than desirable life for its employees and did still did not meet the financial demands of a family. Working with the same people for over a year I had a chance to actually hear their stories and learn that the money I made for day trips with girlfriends and a new pair of jeans could hardly meet their high rent in a suburb of Seattle or the price to send their kids to a successful private school. One man, Kyle for this paper, was recently divorced, paying off childcare expenses, and rode his bike to work in the cold and rain in order to go to night school for web design and a hope for a better life. Most of the people that I worked with always told me that they could not see working in a restaurant for the rest of their lives but that there was no better alternative for an uneducated middle aged person. The fact that I had already received a higher level of education created an interesting complex and when I left The Grill to go to college most of my coworkers were thrilled for me and encouraged me to do well so I could have a better life than they did.

Because I have worked in a restaurant along with my sister and mother I feel incredibly close to this low wage experience. My time at The Grill was beyond valuable and I will never walk into a restaurant without remembering my own experiences. I have such a strong personal connection and close relationships with my coworkers that I would like to take this project as an opportunity to tell their struggles and change people’s minds about restaurant servers just like my experience changed mine.

Low Wage Wal-Mart

Every day, across the world, millions and millions of people work for extremely low wages. For these people, every day is a challenge. Work is often very hard and long, and money is often quite scarce. I, myself, have never worked for low wages, therefore I have not experienced the struggles these people endure. However, my life is greatly influenced by low wage workers every day. Whether it be a store worker selling me clothes, or a teenager making them half a world away, my life is affected by these workers.

Many times when buying new shoes or clothing we do not see the many people behind the scenes, so to speak, that make these things possible. Most people just completely overlook the fact that their clothing has passed through several hands to get to where it is. Many of these hands happen to be low wage workers, earning just above or below minimum wage. Often times, many of these workers are working overseas in factories and sweatshops that do not pay even close to minimum wage.

Many people in America do not care to check the labels of their clothing to see where it was made. If they were to check, they would discover that almost all of their clothing was made in another country overseas. This allows the clothing industry in the United States takes advantage of low wage workers constantly. They do this in order to produce large amounts of their product for very little cost to them. The clothing industry is responsible for low wage workers in sweatshops all over the globe. In many countries around the world there are no minimum wage laws and the clothing industry uses this to their advantage. The factories run in other countries by the U.S. clothing industry pay their workers next to nothing for all day, back breaking labor. The workers are also treated as machines and not as people. Bosses and managers are constantly looking over their shoulders, monitoring everything they do, telling workers to hurry up and work faster and harder than they possibly could. On top of all this they are being paid next to nothing for their hard work. These injustices occur constantly in factories all over the globe.

Wal-Mart has always been known for it’s incredibly low prices and great deals. However, many people do not know Wal-Mart beyond that. For my low wage hypertext project I would like to explore the relationships between the Wal-Mart clothing industry in the United States, Wal-Mart’s worldwide sweatshops, and consumers all over the globe. Not only do I wish to explore the low wage workers taken advantage of overseas, but also those taken advantage of in the U.S. I would also like to compare the wages paid to workers overseas to the prices paid for the products made by these workers. I would also like to show how workers are taken advantage of not only overseas but in the United States as well.