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Mixed reactions to D.C.’s minimum wage hike

Ken Martin sells the newspaper Street Sense in Tenleytown on Wisconsin Avenue
Ken Martin sells the newspaper Street Sense in Tenleytown on Wisconsin Avenue. Photo credit: Kyla Jackson.

Jacqueline Davis shopped at a CVS in Tenleytown, where one-bedroom apartments can fetch $300,000 and single-family homes go for more than $1 million.

A longtime District resident, Davis, 66, worries for low-income residents who may not be able to afford staying in the city. She agrees with the D.C. City Council’s decision this summer to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“I feel very good about it,” Davis said.

In June, the City Council voted to raise the minimum wage from its current $11.50 to $15 an hour by 2020 for non-tipped workers. People interviewed this week in Tenleytown expressed mixed reactions to the increase, with some saying it’s necessary in a city where the cost of living is increasing and others saying they fear prices may go up as a result.

Victoria Alukpe, 21, a political science major at American University, said no one can survive on minimum wage. She feels the increase will help people match their pay checks with what they pay for.

“Everyone is working to survive,” Alukpe said.

Through her studies in political science, Alukpe has come to support the idea of a higher minimum wage, joining many District residents and workers who agree with the minimum wage increase.

D.C. living does come with a hefty price tag.

Zillow.com statistics note that the price for a one-bedroom home in D.C. in 2016 sold for an average $370,000. That’s been steadily on the rise and is expected to continue going up. Five years ago, the average one-bedroom cost $319,000.

Transit costs also add to a low-wage worker’s monthly bill. Metro riders can expect to pay $237 for a 28-day pass, according to the WMATA website.

Ken Martin, 62, a D.C. hat vendor who was offering the Street Sense newspaper outside CVS on Wisconsin Avenue, has a different take on the minimum wage.

“The whole thing is just wacko,” Martin said.

Martin disagrees with the minimum wage increase. He feels it will also raise the cost of living and minimum-wage workers won’t get ahead as promised.

“People just don’t do the math,” Martin said. “Everybody wants more money, but they don’t realize that more money is not enough money.”

 

 

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Minimum wage movement greater now than in the past

 

On July 7, 2016, D.C Council voted on the $15 minimum wage movement. The current number is $10.50. They came to a conclusion that stated that the hourly minimum will merge 70 cents per year for it to be $15 in 2020.

Almost two years ago the movement for the raise of the minimum wage began. Today, minimum wages will become greater. 
The new law the minimum wage is engaged to increase $1.00 on July 1st per year through 2016, exceeding at $11.50. Beginning July 1, 2017 the minimum wage will increase 70¢ cents per year. In fact, Washington D.C. has the highest wage of all the the states of  U.S.

Washington D.C is the latest city to approve the $15 minimum wage. It has become a nationwide matter, people from all over the country are engaging themselves and inviting other communities to fight. It started with the workers, it spread through the cities, almost every person in each state has been informed, candidates even discuss it in their campaigns, others give encouraging speeches, few employers have already raise their employees wage. But workers more than anyone else are working hard, hard to make their rights be respected. 

Virginia P., a 37 years-old Latina who works at a store of Best Buy, said, “I don’t get why they keep talking about all the jobs and other stuff that will trigger the community. Where do you think most of the money comes from?”

 

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Scraping by on D.C.’s minimum wage

Steve Monroe, a retired editor and current freelance communications professional, reads The Washington Post. Photo by Madeline Jarrard.
Steve Monroe, a retired editor and current freelance communications professional, reads The Washington Post at the Tenleytown Starbucks. Photo by Madeline Jarrard.

Jacob Atkins, 24, has worked several minimum wage jobs and participated in a service program called AmeriCorps to put himself through several colleges including American University in Washington D.C.

A Maine native, Atkins has been living in Washington D.C. for a few years, but he believes the city’s minimum wage is not enough to live on.

“I’ve been working since I was 15 years old, so I’m pretty used to being relatively broke all the time,” Atkins said, “but learning how to still pursue my dreams and gain experiences through different jobs.”

Minimum wage workers like Atkins must work 118 hours a week to be able to afford a typical two bedroom apartment in Washington D.C., according to a recent National Low Income Housing Coalition report. That leaves many cash-strapped and unable to plan for a future.

Steve Monroe, a 66-year-old Washington D.C. native, sat at a high top table at the Tenleytown Starbucks sipping a $2 cup of coffee with a crinkled Washington Post off to the side while he talked about his own experience with minimum wage as a young man.

Monroe, a retired journalist, says his career and current freelance work means he lives a comfortable lifestyle now. He can afford his rent, take vacations and eat at upscale restaurants. But he remembers his own struggle with low-wage work and sympathizes with those now who earn the city’s hourly $10.50 minimum wage.

“I have been involved with people who were just scraping by or were on welfare or working minimum wage,” said Monroe, who noted he has done both community work and mentoring. “I’m kind of a humanitarian by nature.”

Sylvia Davis, 48, who is also a Washington D.C. native, believes wealthy people’s awareness about the income gap and the struggles of low-wage workers in D.C. is relative.

Jacob Atkins (left), 24, a rising senior at American University in Washington D.C., jokes with Dylan Liberman, a 17-year-old high school student from Manhattan.
Jacob Atkins (left), 24, a rising senior at American University in Washington D.C., jokes with Dylan Liberman, a 17-year-old high school student from Manhattan.

Davis feels she’s aware because of her own humble beginning and her experience working her way through college, but she said it ultimately depends on people’s exposure and compassion.

“I think people who are spending lots of money on discretionary items sometimes can overlook folks,” Davis said. “But then there a lot of people that don’t and who are compassionate and realize that folks, they rely upon their tips, they rely upon keeping that job, and paying for their family to have food.”

Atkins, a teaching assistant for a summer communications camp in Washington, said while there are people who work minimum wage jobs for an interim period to put themselves through college, he noted there are others who rely on those jobs as adults. He feels the wage should accommodate all people.

“You need to be being paid a reasonable rate to survive because they are supporting families,” Atkins said.

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District cost of living keeping quality of life down

Two construction workers wearing neon green vests stood about two blocks from the Washington Monument on their job at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

They sat in a cloud of cigarette smoke, one drinking a Snapple iced tea, as they discussed rising costs in Washington D.C. and how for some minimum wage is not cutting it as the demographics of the city change.

Anthony Lauchie, 26, a Washington D.C. native, has been able to see the city grow. Areas like the uptown part of D.C. have redeveloped and gentrified.

“You only see it predominately in minority area,” Lauchie said. “Like I said, being here my whole life, most of D.C. has always been, not rundown, but for the most part it’s not nice. Now you go to certain places they’ve got million dollar condos. Who’s supposed to live in these condos? Not minorities.”

Lauchie’s comments come more than a year after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, where he called for Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, according to The White House. The minimum wage in Washington D.C. is even higher than that but still low-wage workers are finding it tough to get by due to the city’s high cost of living.

Lauchie, who does not make minimum wage, said the influence of the wealthy on politics means the wage will keep some people down. He believes that every year as inflation affects the value of a dollar, minimum wage should be keeping up but it’s not. People can’t maintain a healthy lifestyle on minimum wage without living paycheck to paycheck, Lauchie said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics in a 2013 report on minimum wage workers, said that nationwide nearly 5 percent of African American workers earn at or below minimum wage. For whites and Hispanics, the number is only slightly lower.

Higher minimum wages would require fast food restaurants that operate on small profit margins to raise their prices in order to be able to pay employees’ wages, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington D.C.-based think tank.

That stance is little solace for low-wage workers in the district, where the median rental price for a two bedroom apartment is $2,770, according to a February 2015 report from real estate analyst Zumper.

Maryam Khan, 19, a student at American University, works 40 hours a week for $10.50 an hour at the campus book store. Khan said there is no way she could afford to pay rent and buy groceries on that salary.

Juan Ruis, a landscaper at American University. Photo taken by Madeline Jarrad.
Juan Ruis, a landscaper at American University. Photo by Madeline Jarrard.

Juan Ruis, a landscaper at American University with a 4-month-old daughter, doesn’t make minimum wage but said the cost of living in the district is high. He gets to take a vacation every three years.

“You’ve gotta sacrifice,” Ruis said.

 Madeline Jarrard contributed to this story.