The headlines are full of our thanks and praise for the unsung essential heroes among us: the truck drivers, the cashiers, the grocery store clerks, the home health aides. The list is long: the cafeteria workers, cooks, the food delivery personnel, the janitors.
As Time magazine put it recently, “Across the world, essential workers are risking their own lives to save ours.” Time and again, we are hearing their stories of coming to work in spite of the risks to themselves, their families, their partners, their parents. Special praise for the doctors and nurses who should get some kind of combat pay, but my focus is on the underpaid.
Perhaps for the first time, our culture is recognizing that without these dedicated workers, our system would simply collapse. We are now dependent on them for our pharmaceutical deliveries, our Publix shelves getting restocked, our take-out orders being prepared in our favorite restaurants, the local fish market bringing my salmon to the curb.
Does this mean we are now “woke” or newly enlightened to the value these underpaid workers bring us? I hope I can respectfully borrow this term from the black community and the Black Lives Matter movement. I feel the whole issue is intertwined racially and culturally, because almost every job I mentioned is vastly underpaid. Jobs not worth valuing, inherently not worth paying a living wage.
For years I was in awe of the certified nursing assistants that I saw working every day to make a difference in the lives of the residents in the assisted living facility where I worked. Most often they were cheerful, loving and quick with a smile, and many felt called to be a caregiver. They genuinely loved on their patients; you could see it and feel it was genuine. Yes, workers of color — every color. But all were underpaid.
If “woke” means to “emerge from a state of sleep or to become aware of,” then my hope is that we can do more than applaud or hold up signs to show our appreciation. Wikipedia defines a living wage “as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs.”
Needs are defined as food, housing and clothing. The goal of a living wage is to allow a worker to afford a basic but decent standard of living through employment without government subsidies. Lack of affordable housing in Gainesville adds to the bigger problem.
There has been a national movement long before COVID-19 to pay our essential workers a living wage. An hourly wage increase to $13.75 from $13.25 for city employees was the third phase of the city’s plan to eventually raise their minimum wage to $15, according to the current city budget.
City Commissioner David Arreola stated that he hopes the living wage ordinance will set an example for Gainesville businesses to raise their employees’ salaries. I hope so, because there is a need for improvement.
The minimum wage in Florida is $8.56 an hour. Looking up salaries for local drivers, the average pay is $8.67 an hour. Cashiers make about $8.40 an hour. Fast-food workers make on average $9.35 an hour. Nursing assistants and home health aides range from $9.50 to $14.00
I checked out the website for the Living Wage Certification Project of Alachua County. It said, “In 2019, two working parents in Alachua County with two children must make at least $15.19 per hour” each to pay for health care, food, transportation, child care, taxes and housing.
As someone born in New York City, I have always valued the expression, “Put your money where your mouth Is!” Defined as “to improve a bad situation instead of just talking about it,” then let’s awake to what we can do.
Let’s not use the COVID-19 crisis to lose sight of these goals. This is a time for our country to look honestly at its core values as we eventually rebuild our economy.
This virus has shown us some ugly truths that were always there but are now impossible to ignore. How can we make significant changes to the glaring inequalities in pay, health-care delivery, class, racial injustice? If we do, then history will show that something good came out of this terrible virus.
Start with giving your time, your money and your vote to leaders at the local and national level who share these core values and will stand up for our underpaid essential heroes.
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