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The bare minimum
THOMAS DIMOPOULOS
SARATOGA SPRINGS - It's lunch hour on Broadway and 22-year-old Helen Van Auken is making sandwiches behind the counter of the Subway shop where she works 30 hours a week. Twice a week, three hours a night, she attends classes working toward her GED. The rest of the time she tends to her children: Jonathan, who is 6, 3-year-old Matthew and the twins - Logan and Isabel - who are 2 1/2. "I know I've made mistakes by having kids so early, but now I'm trying to better myself by going back to school," said Van Auken, who completed her sophomore year at Saratoga Springs High School and is planning on obtaining her GED, then taking some college courses to learn secretarial skills. In her current job as a supervisor, she makes a slightly higher amount than those working at the minimum wage rate which is $5.15 per hour across the country and $7.15 per hour in New York State. New York will match the federal wage if it is higher. With Congress and the Senate putting together a bill to go to the president and raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, Van Auken said she could see the effect of an increase from both the employee and employer's prospective. "I understand both points of view. Small businesses maybe can't afford to go to a higher minimum wage as much as some of the bigger places," she said. "And if you have two people working the same shift at higher wages, for the owners, you have to make it worth it in sales." Nigham Sheikh owns two Subway stores, one in the Spa City and one in Latham. "I agree that working at minimum wage is tough, but it's tough for us, too," he said. "Already it has made a big difference," Sheikh noted, regarding state increases from $6 per hour in 2005, $6.75 in 2006 and the current level of $7.15 which kicked in at the start of 2007. That difference plays a large role over the course of a year, said Sheikh, who offered that of about 10,000 annual employee hours for the two stores, at least half are affected by minimum wage. "If you multiply the hours and the increase it is a lot of money, but what can you do? With a franchise business, you can't just raise the prices. You have to stick with the company's policies," he said. "Raising prices for the customers to pay isn't right either, so maybe you have to cut down on hours and have less of a work force, or, maybe sell the business and go look for a job." Which workers are earning minimum wage? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 2 million people worked at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in 2005, with the majority of them being women. Last month, U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Hudson, voted to raise the federal minimum wage by $2.10 over the next two years. The current minimum wage of $5.15 has been frozen for over nine years. "Many of those working minimum wage are women with kids," said Gillibrand, citing reports that 59 percent of workers who would benefit from an increase to $7.25 by 2008 are women. That number includes 760,000 single mothers. "It is wrong to have millions of Americans working full time and year-round and still living in poverty. At $5.15 an hour, a full-time minimum wage worker brings home $10,712 a year - nearly $6,000 below the poverty level for a family of three," she said at the time of her vote. From the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, measures found in the House and Senate bill include an incremental increase of the minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.85, 60 days after enactment to $6.55 a year later in 2008 and $7.25 in 2009. "We want to make sure we reward the people who are working hard. It was the right thing to do," Gillibrand said Friday afternoon. "This will also make New York more competitive with some of our surrounding states," she said of states like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Maine, each of which may appear more attractive to businesses because of lower minimum wage levels than New York. The individual state figures will be automatically replaced with the higher Federal minimum wage rate. New York, which is currently at $7.15 per hour, will go to $7.25 in 2009 as well. There is another prevailing thought, that employees are more productive when their salaries are above the designated minimum wage, which began in the US in the 1930s. "In general, I think raising the minimum wage is good," said Mike Zimmerman, co-owner of Saratoga Coffee Traders on Broadway. "The cost of living has certainly gone up. I think it will have a good effect on the economy," he said. "We keep our employees base pay well above the minimum wage. I think there's a certain dignity and responsibility that comes with it. If you're paid minimum wage, maybe you're thinking, 'Oh, I can leave at any time.' At a higher rate, I think you take it more seriously, you're part of the team," Zimmerman said. Roy Rotheim volunteers as a cook at the soup kitchen in Saratoga Springs. He is also a professor in social responsibility at Skidmore College, where he talks to students about what he calls misperceptions about people working at minimum wage. "Most people have so little contact with those that are not like them and there is a misperception about people in the low-income community," Rotheim said. "They are not all indolent and slothful. These are people trying very hard to make something of their lives. They too have to think about where their money is coming from and plan how they will spend it," he said. "There are millions of people who are both, earning the minimum wage and affected by it. Let's assume there is a person working full time, that they have a family with two kids and that their partner is also working full-time at minimum wage. These are hard working people, trying to better themselves and living at the poverty level," he said. "Do they have health insurance? What about child care? Factor that in and ask yourself what the quality of their life is," he said. Working for a better life A Fiscal Policy Institute report issued in 2006 concluded that higher minimum wages have helped workers get a fairer wage while small businesses have continued to grow. "The (dollar) value of the minimum wage has fallen to an all-time low and the cost of living has increased. Even the person who makes the average wage is fairing less and less with the quality of life being poorer," Rotheim said. "With minimum wage going up, it has an impact on disposable income. That's good for business. Recent studies show that workers with higher wages feel more valued by their employer. You have a decrease in turnover, and they work harder. That's a cost savings," said Rotheim, adding that he thinks another misconception surrounds the high number of women working at minimum wage. "People think, 'Oh, they're just spouses of guys that are doing really well,' or that they're just filling their time by doing something," he said. "But, that's not reality. You look at it and see women who are single heads of household who are not making a choice, but who have to work." Helen VanAuken figures she knows what some people are thinking about her as a single mother. "Maybe people making a whole lot more money look down at us. We know we made mistakes, but a lot of us are trying to get ahead," she said. "I've looked around and to live with four kids in Saratoga it's $1,000 or more a month. I live in subsidized housing, and I try to save. I'm working here and doing my best going back to school. I want to get out of where I am," she said, during a break at work when she was studying math problems. "My goal is to be in an apartment or a nice trailer. In a magical world, it would be real nice to live in a great, big house," she said hopefully. Then she closed up her book of math problems, excused herself from the discussion and went back to work. Reach Thomas Dimopoulos at tdimopoulos@saratogian. com or 518-583-8729 ext 219.
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