Entry Level Wages + Poverty = Share Cropping

Yesterday at church I was surprised by the Pastor’s choice of lecture, he chose to speak on the working poor and the extremely poor. My church is located in West Lake, CA, which is a very influential and economically sound area in Los Angeles County. The Pastor specifically spoke to the CEO’s and Executive Mangers about the coming holiday season and how many of the them look forward to giving or receiving expensive gifts, while many of their entry level workers would be struggling to provide Christmas gifts for their families. I was very surprised to hear this, but was glad that the church recognized the disparity between the million dollar salaries, bonus packages, employment perks, stock options, and great retirement packages offered to the CEO’s and Executive Managers, while front line and entry level employees teeter on the line of poverty.

In case you don’t know (where the hell you been?) The working poor is defined as individuals and families who maintain regular employment but remain in relative poverty due to low levels of pay and dependent expenses. Officially, in the United States, the working poor are defined as individuals who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force (working or looking for work), but whose incomes fell below the official poverty level. Often, those defined as "working poor" have negative net worth and lack the ability to escape personal and economic contingencies.


I remember a few years ago I was laid off of work and was looking for a job for 6 months. After 6 months of looking for a decent paying job I gave up and starting to apply for any and all jobs. My unemployment checks had run out and I had a mortgage to pay. After putting in what seemed like hundreds of applications finally one place called…… yes! This job was a subsidiary of Daimler Chrysler and I would provide customers with recall information over the phone. The interview went great and I was ecstatic when they offered my job……. but my excitement soon faded when they told me that the starting salary was $8.75 per hour. I said, “Excuse me, did you say $8.75 per hour?” The HR representative stated the hourly wage again and had no shame in her game, a matter of fact she said it in a take it or leave it tone of voice. I was in school at the time and really needed some income like ASAP so I took it. I was miserable the entire time I was there; it was so hard to go to work and even harder to make $ 1250.00 stretch enough to pay all my bills, plus have money left over to do little things like, uh….. eat and buy gas to get to work. Luckily I could depend on friends and family to help me through this rough patch. ( I was so desperate I tried to go to the welfare office and get food stamps, and they told me since I owned a home and did not have kids I did not qualify, ain’t that some sh!t) I can not tell you how many payment arrangements I had on all the utility bills, and how many times I paid the minimum on everything and prayed nothing got turned off. I even went to some of those organizations that help people pay their utility bills, they told me that since I made over $10,000 a year I made too much money, and I was not on any government assistance.. ie foodstamps, wic, or getting a welfare check, they could not help me. Here I was a single woman trying to basically feed myself, but there were others that had kids as well as the normal expenses. I often wondered what they did to make ends meet, because I was short every month. It would make me so mad to see Chrysler making millions of dollars of profits and paying their workers chump change.

NY Post recently wrote an article about this issue and found:

“In a weak labor market, younger workers do the worst,” said Lawrence Mishel, the institute’s president. “Young workers are on the cutting edge of experiencing all the changes in the economy. The percentage of young adults who are working has dropped since 2000 largely because many have grown discouraged and stopped looking for work. This has happened even though the unemployment rate, which counts only people looking for work, has fallen to 4.4 percent for those ages 25 to 34. It is 8.2 percent for workers ages 20 to 24.


It makes my blood boil every time President Busch says that the economy is strong and getting stronger. I wish I could ask him where he was getting that information from, and does he have SOLID proof. The people I know are coming out of college loaded with debt and fighting for the few good paying jobs that are available.

I wish people of influence and prestige would begin to see that wealth should be shared not horded exclusively for upper management and CEO’s. In some companies entry level wages reminds me of share cropping because the low level employees only see a small portion of money, while the company profits millions. People have been saying for years that the middle class will eventually disappear and there will only be rich and poor. It’s getting painfully clear that we are heading in that direction.