TruthOut10
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- Dec 3, 2012
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I really want people to understand that we all work just as hard as the next person thats in a business suit, says Tamika Maxwell, mother of three, describing her work as a janitor in Cincinnati, her hometown.
Along with 1,000 colleagues in the city, Maxwell hopes that current negotiations between SEIU and the citys cleaning contractors will raise their $9.80 hourly wagewhich, for annual full-time work, still leaves a family of three below the federal poverty line and relying on food stamps and Medicaid. In essence, the state ends up subsidizing corporations to continue paying people a non-living wage.
My paycheck is the same amount as my Duke Energy bill, says Maxwell. And you know they dont carethey will cut you off if you dont have their money.
Maxwell works part-time while also pursuing a business degree at Cincinnati State. Shes now employed by Scioto Services, which recently won the contract for the Public Defenders office building that she has cleaned for four years. The company retained Maxwell but cut back all of the janitors hours. Instead of working the 510 pm shift five days per week, Maxwell now works only four.
Thats a big deal when youre only making $9.80 an hour, she says.
But perhaps what is most frustrating to Maxwell and her colleagues is that among the cleaning contractors clients are some of the richest companies in the world. Macys, for example, made $1.25 billion in profits last year; Fifth Third Bancorp took in $1.3 billion; and Kroger netted more than $600 million. In all, thirteen Fortune 1000 companies with their corporate headquarters in Cincinnati earned combined profits of nearly $17 billion in 2011. If any of them told the cleaning contractors to pay a living wage, the contractors would do so, and would pass the additional cost onto the multibillion-dollar corporations.
This Week in Poverty: The Fiscal Cliff and the Janitors Who Are Already on It | The Nation
Along with 1,000 colleagues in the city, Maxwell hopes that current negotiations between SEIU and the citys cleaning contractors will raise their $9.80 hourly wagewhich, for annual full-time work, still leaves a family of three below the federal poverty line and relying on food stamps and Medicaid. In essence, the state ends up subsidizing corporations to continue paying people a non-living wage.
My paycheck is the same amount as my Duke Energy bill, says Maxwell. And you know they dont carethey will cut you off if you dont have their money.
Maxwell works part-time while also pursuing a business degree at Cincinnati State. Shes now employed by Scioto Services, which recently won the contract for the Public Defenders office building that she has cleaned for four years. The company retained Maxwell but cut back all of the janitors hours. Instead of working the 510 pm shift five days per week, Maxwell now works only four.
Thats a big deal when youre only making $9.80 an hour, she says.
But perhaps what is most frustrating to Maxwell and her colleagues is that among the cleaning contractors clients are some of the richest companies in the world. Macys, for example, made $1.25 billion in profits last year; Fifth Third Bancorp took in $1.3 billion; and Kroger netted more than $600 million. In all, thirteen Fortune 1000 companies with their corporate headquarters in Cincinnati earned combined profits of nearly $17 billion in 2011. If any of them told the cleaning contractors to pay a living wage, the contractors would do so, and would pass the additional cost onto the multibillion-dollar corporations.
This Week in Poverty: The Fiscal Cliff and the Janitors Who Are Already on It | The Nation
