Three workers react to wage hike

By Jeffrey Scott

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

MARILYNN WINN, 58

Temp worker: ‘Every little bit makes a big difference’

Marilynn Winn, 58, keeps fans going in her Atlanta apartment a few blocks from Turner Field instead of running the air conditioner on a 90-degree day because “when I turn the air conditioner on it costs a hundred dollars,” she said.

“These cost $40 to run,” she added, pointing at two oscillating fans in her living room.

Winn, a temp worker, said she’ll gladly take the 70 cents-an-hour raise.

“Every little bit makes a big difference,” she said. But it won’t change the way she lives, and it doesn’t keep pace with expenses.

“MARTA is going up, and water is going up,” she said. Her apartment is $495 a month and she shares it with her boyfriend.

“Without him I wouldn’t be able to support myself,” she said. “I’d be homeless.” She thinks minimum wage should be “at least $10 an hour — that’s the only way a person can afford to live.”


HENRY WONG, 22

‘I’m glad I’m getting a raise,’ 
but it’ll apply to only one job

Henry Wong, like many low wage earners, has two jobs: One, at the GameStop video game store in Norcross, pays him $6.81 an hour. The other, just one day a week at a restaurant, pays $2.13 plus tips.

The 22-year-old full-time student at Gwinnett Technical College only works about 12 hours a week at GameStop. That means he’ll pocket an extra $5.28 a week, before taxes, when the minimum wage rises to $7.25.

“I’m glad I’m getting a raise,” he said. “But it’s hard to be excited about. That’s not enough to buy a McDonald’s (meal).”

Wong works about 5 hours on Sundays at a friend’s restaurant and takes home, with tips, $40 to $50. That won’t change, since the minimum for tip workers isn’t going up. So Wong figures that on a good week he’ll now make about $137 before taxes.

He said he can make ends meet only because he lives with his sister, who has a good job. “She pretty much pays for everything.”

SARA CAMPBELL, 49

‘It’s not much and it’s still not enough,’ house cleaner says

Sara Campbell, 49, survives on minimum wage, working 30 hours a week as a house cleaner, only because every month she borrows about $100 from her son, she said.

Today’s 70 cents-an-hour increase is “something,” she said, “but it’s not much and still not enough” to support her in a small apartment in Southeast Atlanta.

She’s been working as a maid for about a year and looking for another job. “Nobody is really hiring now,” she said. “The only option I have right now is to go back to school and get nurse training.”

She doesn’t know how she’d pay for that but thinks she might be able to get a loan through a government program. Meantime she’s thankful for her son’s help and for having a place to live on her weekly take-home pay, which next week will rise from about $150 to about $170.

“Thank God my landlord doesn’t go by income” to approve renters, she said. “I don’t know where I’d go.”