Working Poor Women’s Paid Labor (BLOG 7)

Some of the factors that contribute to the instability that Julia faces began right after the birth of her daughter Jacqueline. She was finally able to leave the homeless shelter and was placed in section 8 housing. Her boyfriend lived with her and her two other daughters so he provided the childcare at first but moved out after a few months and ended up in jail. Since she was placed in public housing she lost her food stamp benefits and feared her and her daughters would starve to death. When they were really struggling, her sister Izzy move in with them to help her watch the girls. They alternated shifts working at the Burger Joint but unfortunately the new job meant her sister couldn’t always babysit and Julia had to stop taking computer and GED classes.
Shortly after, she began WEP, the Work Experience Program because she couldn’t work at the Burger Joint for too long or she would lose her public assistance. This was supposed to help her pay for child care but they were always late sending checks. When she found a woman from the CWP program to look after her daughters, the arrangement ended because Julia couldn’t pay her on time because her checks were late. When that arrangement fell through she asked her cousin if she would watch the girls because she figured since she was family she would endure the late payments.
Her cousin did tolerate not getting paid sometimes, but she could not tolerate not getting paid at all. When the welfare agency moved offices they lost Julia’s paper work and stopped paying her altogether. This caused the arrangement with Julia’s cousin to also fall through because she wouldn’t work for free. All this happened around the time that Julia finally qualified for ACD and was able to send her kids to a fabulous caregiver named Sonia. She got her full time job after completing five welfare to work programs and in the end lost all of her public assistance altogether for having a decent job.
Stories like Julia’s are not uncommon for people trying to live on minimum wage. Having a minimum wage job means that mothers like Jessica need to make sacrifices for their children to provide stable and safe childcare and make a better living. They live pay-check to pay-check. For example, she mentions having to sacrifice eating dinner sometimes in order to put enough food on the table for her four kids. Having a minimum wage job means the only housing she can afford has holes in the walls and is in the roughest part of town. She can’t let her kids pay outside for fear of them getting shot and killed and they sell drugs next door.
She feels that living on a minimum wage salary is a battle. When she considered looking for another job, employers only offered a starting pay of what she made before. She feels it is just not fair to have to start from the bottom all over again and still make the same pay. She wants to be able to buys shoes for her kids from a regular store and not the thrift store. She wants to be able to fix her cars transmission without worrying about whether or not she’ll be able to afford rent. She says the battle won’t end until society changes end and there is an effective leader who takes action and actually cares about people having food on their table and providing affordable health care to be able to die respectfully.