The Working Poor and Minimum Wage

The cover story this morning on CBS Sunday Morning was about the movement to increase the federal minimum wage.  

Here is how the story began: 

Twenty-seven-year-old Nancy Salgado’s sweet smile may be her most marketable asset in the fast food industry — that and her willingness to do just about any task . . . 

“I work at grill, I fry products; making sandwiches, assembling the sandwiches,” she told Moriarty. “I work breakfast, lunch, dinner.  I work cashier.  I work drive-through.  I do drink station.  Throw away garbage.  Pretty much that’s it.”

“Do you think [that] people run in to get their fast food, do they notice the person serving them?” Moriarty asked.

“No, they never notice.  But I believe that’s my skill to be friendly. Even though I’m heartbroken, even though I have problems at home and I have to deal with them day by day, I would still give you a smile.”

And yet, after working for a decade at McDonald’s franchise restaurants in Chicago, she still earns the state minimum wage in Illinois — currently $8.25 an hour.

Salgado, a divorced mother of two, struggles to get by on little more than a thousand dollars a month, and that’s with no benefits. . . .