I've received a phone call from a young woman who's a senior in high school, working part time as a waitress to save money for college. She said it's her first job, that it was hard to find a job with no prior experience, and that she loves the contact with people that it gives her. But she also said that tips are critical, that she's been working a lot of morning shifts, and that tips on the morning shift are low because breakfast is generally a relatively inexpensive meal. Further, tips are also dependent on overall business volume, which seems to have slowed down since the holidays. So right now, tips are down, and if they don't pick up again soon, she will look for additional work.

Her story may be one of those we air next month.

And we're still looking.

What's your take on Low Wage Living in Vermont?

-Betty Smith, producer

Had an interesting e-mail from economist Art Woolf of UVM. He pointed us toward some very useful background information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The url is: http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2006.htm

After reading the background, I asked him a couple of questions and he agreed that I could post his answers.

1. This background was based on national statistics. Do you think pretty much the same profiles hold true here in Vermont?

Art: Vermont has a higher minimum wage, so we have a higher percent of our workers who earn that minimum wage, but it is still low. I can't put my finger on it, but I seem to remember that Vermont Dept of Labor estimates about 5% rather than the 2% for the US (actually it's less than 2% for the US for some technical reasons, and hence probably less than 5% for Vermont).

2. What would be the half-dozen or so jobs that in your opinion would be the most representative of Minumum Wage workers in Vt?

Art: Minimum wage jobs are most heavily concentrated in retail, accommodations, and restaurants.

3. Are there any popular misconceptions about the minimum wage in general that we should be mindful of, as we undertake this project?

Art: The first is probably how many people earn the minimum wage. I always ask my class this question and the students' range is usually around 20%-30%. The second is that raising the minimum wage is costless. There are some people who don't get jobs because of the minimum wage, although those with the higher wage are happier. Firms can pass some of the higher wage bill on to customers, so you can have the paradoxical result that teenage children of middle class families get a higher wage when they work at fast food restaurants, and the patrons of those restaurants, at least some of whom are low income, pay higher prices for their food. In addition, firms can respond to the higher wage by using more technology in place of workers or they can reduce their training of workers, which means they don't build up skills as quickly. There are no free lunches.


What do you think?

-Betty Smith, producer

The UVM economist says: "There are some people who don't get jobs because of the minimum wage"

Very True! if not for the minimum wage I could hire a staff. housekeepers, gardeners, cooks, drivers - it would be great! I just can't get people to work for 25 cents an hour with this anti-business minimum wage.

Another problem with the minimum wage which is often overlooked - if employees are paid too much they don't qualify for welfare and state health insuance. What will they do if they get sick or have a family to feed?

Of course, the minimum wage runs contrary to the principles of a free market economy. The market will set the proper wage. If you don't pay your employees enough, they will starve to death, forcing you to raise your wage to attract new employees. Unfortunately, if there is an oversupply of employees many will have to starve before the market corrects, but that's life, ain't it? There's no free lunch.

I don't believe that it is easy living at or near minimum wage. However, it is not meant to be, really. It is irresponsible to try to raise a family on a minimun wage job. It is meant to be a starting point. If you don't aspire to more, that is your right, but don't complain. No matter how poor or disadvanteged you may be, you can get an education, or learn a trade that will bring in a higher wage.In fact, the poorer you are, the more free money there is for you to go to school. My 16 year old daughter, a junior in high school makes more than minimum wage as an aid in a nursing home, and they certified her for free.
If you get yourself an unskilled, low paying minimum wage job, and call it good, and start having babies, you are doing yourself and your family a disservice. Reach for more. You were never expected to make your living forever at this pay scale. It was always assumed you would start there, and move forward. People complain about rising prices at the same time they scream for more money. If every cashier, drive through attendent, and burger flipper makes 10.00 an hour, things are going to cost more. It's the same as complaining that all the jobs are going overseas..Unions demand that their workers make 20.00 an hour, businesses can't make their money back. because people continue to flock to Dollar Stores and Wal-Mart where things are made in China and are cheap. We can't have it both ways.
Learn a trade or get higher education and get off minimum wage...this is America, where you can do anything you set your mind to!

Minimum wage is not a living wage, but I believe it should be. I also feel strongly that employers need to have a conscience. When I hired in-home child care help, I felt very strongly that not paying a living wage to the adult who did this for a living would have been unexceptable for many reasons. Meanwhile, I had friends who bragged that they found an adult sitter for their children for $3 an hour. Not only was it only fair to pay my 55-year-old sitter a living wage, but I also thought it demeaned everything I do as a parent to pretend that the efforts of my "sub" weren't worth -- in 2005, for example -- $12 per hour. Thanks for covering this important issue.

Irene Wrenner
Essex

From an email with the writer's permission:

As a ski instructor, I make minimum wage, plus tips. I enjoy seeing "never evers" learn to turn, stop and enjoy the mountain winter sport I have loved for many years. I could not live on what I make as a ski instructor. I also have a college degree and am a freelance writer and photographer. My husband is an industrial engineer and travels out of state to work, and makes a very decent living. Both my husband and I worked very hard in high school, and with scholarships, which we paid back, we earned a higher education. Many of our classmates focused on high school sports, an active social life, and had a great disdain for our "hitting the books" and we were considered "nerds" and non-socials. We could see the benefits of working hard at school and getting somewhere in the future. My husband is the oldest of 9 children and there was no money for college from his parents, so he had two jobs while in college, which he paid for himself. I am the youngest of 3 children, and my father and mother paid for half of my college costs and during college I worked in the summers, making minimum wage teaching swimming at a camp for girls. You get out of life what you put into it.

-Deb Burke, Killington

I am not sure how my situation fits into low wage living, but I work part time in a seasonal industry. Many Vermonters work seasonally because of the jobs and industry available in this area. To compensate for the low wages paid to workers (in my case it's the ski industry), I work part time as a bar tender and additionally for an events company.

Tending bar and promotional work pay well, but the hours available and dependability of work fluctuates dramatically, so that it can hardly be called stable. Furthermore, juggling three part-time positions does not offer an opportunity for work sponsored health insurance or savings plans. Luckily Vermont has Catamount Health Plan to assist lower income individuals with health care, but paying an extra $100-200 per month is exceedingly difficult for many Vermonters. I know it is for me. On top of rent, heat, car payments, student loans, paying down the credit card, and saving $ for my 1099 taxes, money is extremely tight. An extra dollar per hour doesn't go a very long way. That's an extra $50 per week that after taxes is really more like $45. I'll take it, but in the long run, gas and heating oil prices are climbing, rent prices increase every year (because property taxes are running off the charts), and my miniscule bank account is earning less interest by the week these days! The small raise in minimum wage does not compensate for the average cost of living in today's U.S.

I would say that I work between 50-60 hours a week, depending on availability of work, and still struggle to keep afloat. I am now looking forward to grad school this spring, but am dreading the $150,000 loan I will need to take out (the low interest rate works for me here).

I truly don't understand how many people live and raise families on minimum wage, even with the new increase. I commend them for making it work and getting by, but I don't want to worry about making ends meet any longer. I am moving out of VT. Hopefully one day I will return!

My name is Kevin, I'm a 26 year old mid-college non-student and I deliver pizza in Burlington. I am paid $4.75 an hour after a $.25 raise after a year. I make most of my money through tips, although the boxes say "free delivery" so many people assume they don't need to tip. I end up making anywhere from $7 and hour to $20 an hour on a busy weekend.

The day-shift drivers spend the first hour doing prep work such as cutting vegetables and kneading dough balls, along with portion out ground beef, sausage and cutting ham. These people are also paid $4.50 or slightly more an hour. I have often wondered just how legal this labor practice actually is.

The orgin of tipping i believe was because people felt bad for the waitresses who worked at inns and the like for a room , or something like that. I work for a very profitable industry yet companies big and small, like Papa John's add a delivery charge and keep 35% percent of it, or domino's also pays drivers under minimum wage.

In Burlington, I believe there is one delivery vehicle owned by the store, and that's owned by Mr. Litwiler (sp). All other vehicles, i believe are owned by the driver, who also are supposed to pay extra insurance fees to be covered while working.

The amount of money I actually earn is impossible to predict. One night you can make $120 in 8 hours, then the next day you make $60 in the same 8.

It makes things like christmas interesting, November and December we very busy at the store, so I made enough money to blow it mindlessly for Christma-chana-kwansa-don, but the minute the ball dropped on 08, the entire city seemed to realize their credit cards were maxed out and they should all stop ordering pizza, and if they do order, not tipping would be a good way to soften the blow from that big screen tv they bought for themselves through their collective spouses.

From an email with the writer's permission:

There are a large number of refugees who have come through the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program who are stuck in minimum wage jobs due to a lack of proficiency in English and little-to no education or previous job skills, with little hope of securing higher paying jobs. I accompany a Somali Bantu single mom with five children (Somali Bantu are one of the largest refugee group in Vermont) who puts pricetags on clothes in the back stockroom at TJ Maxx in So. Burlington. She does so with three other Somali women who speak little English. They make minimum wage with no benefits, and yet she is expected by the U.S. government to become self-sufficient. It is nearly impossible as a sole wage earner with a big family. Just wanted to make sure that you don't leave out the refugee population, many of whom are the new hotel and factory workers in northern Vermont.

-Marybeth Redmond, Essex Junction

To answer the final question, no, the minimum wage is not a living wage in vermont. even if two people in the same household were making the minimum wage, it would not be enough to live on for those two people alone.

I make twice the minimum wage at my job. I am a single mother with one child and no child support.

I can just barely afford my mortgage, but not my property taxes.

My child has state sponsored health care, but i have gone without for a long time, until catamount came into effect, even that is a huge stretch for me to make those payments.

I can't afford a dentist, nor eyeglasses (both of which i desperately need), nor oil for my furnace (if i could cut food out of my budget i would, and do at times for myself, though not my daughter). my meager savings are all but gone. gasoline to go just to and from work totals $120/mo. there are no luxuries like clothes and vacations. i make too much to qualify for anything like food stamps or fuel assistance, but not enough to actually afford those things myself. i heat with wood and owe for that. there are no movies out nor dinners out. my electric bill is outrageous although i keep all lights to a minimum.

I would be considered middle class years ago, but now i am the working poor. If property taxes, electric, gasoline, fuel oil, health care, dentistry, optometry were tax deductible for some of us, it would help. At the moment i am one paycheck away from not having a home. And rentals in vermont? forget it, more than my mortgage. Crazy....

Not to sound elitist, but I doubt that the average low-income Vermont household listens much to VPR or that they have the time to go online and reply here. That's not a disparagement. VPR is to radio what "slow food" is to dining; if you're poor you don't have the resources to go "slow food" and you don't have time to sit and really listen to in depth radio coverage - you just need to find fast news and go for the quick flashy network bites. I'm one of only two people in my office who listen to public radio; everyone else tunes into WOKO or something of that ilk. The point of this is that I don't think you're going to get an opinion of the minimum wage that is representative of the population attempting to survive on it. So I'm sending my perspective, which comes largely from my job.

I work with a poverty relief agency in Addison County. At our offices we see dozens of people every day who live near or the minimum wage. It is most definitely not a liveable wage. If it was, our agency would be much, much smaller. And that would be good.

Many of the people who use our services work more than one low-wage job; employers can't afford to take people on full-time and then pay the benefits required. So workers, single people and parents, work various shifts, racing from one job to another, with little time to eat and not enough time for sleep. They don't have medical insurance, they are often undernourished (even if they look heavy), and can't get time off to go to a doctor if needed, and can't pay for medications if prescribed. So they get sick more often than higher income people but they can't stay home sick or they will lose their jobs.

If their car breaks down they can't afford to repair it. If they take the bus, and the bus is ten minutes late, their boss threatens to fire them. If their child is sick and can't go to school or daycare they must either stay home or leave the child alone. If they lose a day or two of work and still have a job, they may become homeless because they can't do without that one or two days' pay. If they don't have a housing subsidy they are either unable to afford food, heat, or other necessities, or their housing is substandard, unsafe.

The recent rise in minumum wage is not much more than a token. Someone working 40 hours a week will see a weekly increase of $5.54 in their take home pay per week, to $283.70, assuming that the only payroll deductions are the mandatory social security and medicaid taxes. Even supposing that someone had been able to afford food, heat, lights, housing, medications, etc., on the previous pay, this tiny increase in income cannot nearly keep up with the increased costs of gasoline, heat, housing, food, and many other expenses.

Raising the minimum wage even this small amount can be viewed as progress, in certain lights. But it is a miniscule drop in what seems like a vast, bottomless bucket of poverty for many, many Vermonters. We've got to do better.

I am self-employed and work extra jobs and probably make an income similar to minimum wage. ($7.68 X 40 hours/week X 52 weeks/year= $15,974 before taxes, right?). My work is not regular so my income is not steady, but I love what I do (midwifery and herbalism). My kids are grown so I only have myself to support. I do not see how anyone with a family could live on minimum wage as I can barely make it and have an extremely modest lifestyle. (Vacation? what's that?)
I think it's ridiculous that 1/3 of my income goes to taxes.
I have also worked as waitstaff so know how that can be.

Response to Mr. Woolf's comments

1. The percentage of people earning at or near the min. wage is less important than the number. According to the VT Dept. of Labor's Occupational Wage Estimates (from the Occup. Employment Survey), there were about 7,000 workers earning less than $8.00 / hour in 2006.

2. Moreover, there were almost 40,000 earning less than $8.50 / hour. Thus, focusing only on the exact min. wage is misleading.

3. Mr. Woolf stated that "There are some people who don't get jobs because of the minimum wage". This is a very common view but there is good evidence that it is not accurate (or at least exaggerated). See Card & Krueger's work at Princeton.

4. Mr. Woolf implied that a great many low-wage workers are teenagers. While it is true that most teenagers earn low wages, it is not true that most low-wage workers are teenagers. 2000 Census micro-data shows that 80% of full-time workers earning less than $15,000 / year were over 23 years old.

5. Mr. Woolf expressed concern about the costs of raising wages. But this requires analysis, not just vague references to economic theory. In some cases, raising prices 1% could allow employers to raise wages substantially. Is paying an extra $0.02 for a loaf of bread too much of a burden to help workers earn a better wage? And higher wages should help employers save money by reducing high rates of turnover.

6. The suggestion that raising wages would help teenagers but hurt other low-wage workers (from higher prices) ignores the fact that a higher wage floor tends to push up wages for those just above the legal min. wage. That means a lot more people earn a little more and, therefore, have more to spend.

7. Many low-wage workers receive public assistance of one kind or another. This is a huge cost that is not included in the price at the cash register. Therefore, taxpayers subsidize low-wage employers whether they shop there or not.

Finally, some economists and business groups have told us for decades that raising the min. wage would be a disaster for the economy. It hasn't happened. Quite the contrary. The share of new wealth going to workers is lower than it's been in decades. The vast majority of the wealth created by higher productivity has gone to the top 1% while inflation adjusted wages are hardly growing at all.

For some people it may be okay. For others, it is not!

Vermont's minimum wage of $7.68 per hour equals $61.44 a day... that is, if you are working eight hours. But when the week closes, taxes and social security will be taken out.

In the end, you will be earning about $250.00 a week... "take home".

This is okay if you are a high school student or somebody older who is living with your parents where all expenses are covered such as food, so-called rent, electricity, and fuel... the basics. And if you are lucky you may be "cashing in" on your parents' health insurance plan.

BUT if you are a single adult trying to live on your own or even with a roommate, the minimum wage would not be sufficient for a satisfying existence.

Not everybody is intellectually able to be a computer whiz, a CEO, a doctor, or a lawyer. With that said, how do you live on your own by earning $7.68 dollars an hour?

Apartment rentals are sky-high. To heat your apartment so you are warm and comfortable is difficult as fuel expenses continue to soar.

Gasoline is sky-high. To own a car, even, is next-to-impossible unless a family member buys it for you.

Grocery prices continue to rise up through the roof When one goes to the grocery store today, one needs to carry coupons clipped out of the local newspaper to help defray the expenses. A $100 food bill every couple of days is not unusual.

Health insurance you say? It's barely a thought. By the time you are ready to buy it, your pockets are bone-dry empty.

The future is bleak for anybody trying to live on this wage.

Also, God knows, when one reaches the age of 30, payments should be made towards a retirement plan. Well... actually... that person will probably never be able to retire! But on a hopeful note, maybe there mother or father or both, will leave an inheritance.

In these perilous times, the minimum wage should be higher especially to encourage our Vermonters to stay in the state and to help them believe their is a place for them here in this grand state.

From an email with the writer's permission

The minimum wage may not provide a reasonable 'living wage', but there are two other factors that must be considered:

1) There MUST be a LOW enough minimum wage to provide employment for young people with no experience, no skills, and no work ethic. Most of our minimum wage earners do not 'live' off of their wages, and they need a place to gain experience, skill, and work ethic, when many of them are more of a liability to their employer.

2) Minimum wage earners who are attempting to 'live' from their wages also have many additional programs to augment their needs - food stamps, fuel assistance, Dr. Dinasaur & Catamount Health, counseling, etc. etc. When they become skilled, responsible, and experienced they are usually either paid more or eligible for a better paying job elsewhere.

In my opinion we DO NOT need to raise the minimum wage. We need to provide a sliding scale for the assistance programs so that when one earns a little more wage they only lose a little of their benefits, proportional but not equal to their increased wages. Their must be incentive to improve skills and attempt to move up the scale in small steps!

- Gail Warnaar, Barnet

Early in this project, we were faced with trying to understand what really constitutes a "low wage", how it relates to the Minimum Wage and what working for a low wage actually means in terms of individual lives.

As it turns out, this question is fundamentally related to how we - as a nation and a state - define poverty. And that, in turn, raises the question of what, exactly, is a "livable wage"?

So we turned to Colin Robinson, Director of the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign at Burlington's Peace and Justice Center, for his perspective:

In the 1950s, the Federal government undertook to determine what would constitute a survival food budget - called the USDA Food Budget. On the theory that it should constitute 1/3 of a household's after tax income, this allowed them to established a base-line for what has become known as the poverty limit. The Federal Poverty Limit governs eligibility for public benefits like food stamps (household income can be up to 135% of poverty limit) and health care programs like Vermont's Dr. Dynasaur program (300%).

The Joint Fiscal Office Report (a non-partisan office of the state legislature) comes out every two years. See March 2007 report: http://www...ic%20Needs

They have a very specific methodology to calculate a basic needs budget. Many businesses, government offices and non-profits use this report as a tool to determine appropriate compensation based on the cost of basic needs.

That being said, because there are multiple family scenarios there is no one livable wage. Additionally, there are numbers for rural and urban Vermont (Chittenden Co. being considered the only urban area in VT).

The number that the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign (VLWC) uses as a base number is the single person no children, which for 2007 was $13.94/hr (urban) and $14.57/hr (rural), which is an average of $14.26/hr.

Two additional points about these numbers:

1) These numbers assume that there is employer provided health insurance and that the employer pays 84% of the premium for a single person and 73% for a family. The livable wage increases by $2-6/hr if there is no employer sponsored health insurance.

2) Since the JFO report comes out every two years, the VLWC indexes the number to the same Consumer Price Index-Urban number the State uses for the minimum wage. In 2008 that was 2%. So based on their calculations the 2008 livable wage average for a single person, when indexed by CPI-U, would be $14.54/hr, with employer sponsored insurance.

Despite these nuances, the point is that folks making a below a livable wage (LW) are not meeting all their basic needs and have to either go without or rely on public assistance. Additionally, in almost all cases public assistance programs have a "cliff" of eligibility (strict income limit) where by if a person receives say a $1 raise per hour it may make them ineligible for a program like food stamps or VHAP, but isn't enough to make up the difference in their basic needs. They may be making $12 per hour and make too much to receive assistance but too little to pay all their bills (esp. with rising fuel cost, health insurance, etc.).

The Federal Poverty Limit (FPL) is the measure by which public benefits eligibility is determined, but the methodology is antiquated. The reality is many Vermonters are making above 100% of the FPL and still not meeting their basic needs. Even 300% of the FPL ($63,756 for a household of 4), is still less than the 2008 average LW income for a household of 4 with two working parents of $74,318.

Added to this, if you take the example of a single parent with two children (as household of 3), 100% of the FPL is $17,652 annually. That would mean a wage of $8.49/hr (assuming the parent works 40h/week, 52 weeks/year). In Vermont and nationally the minimum wage is lower than this. The minimum wage will guarantee to put a hard working parent in this situation - below FPL - which is even more surprising when you think how antiquated the FPL methodology is. Obviously there are degrees of poverty, but if an individual or family can not meet their basic needs of food, housing, child care, transportation, health care, clothing, household and personal expenses, insurance and a 5% savings they are somewhere on the spectrum and are undoubtedly at least one lost job, one big hospital bill or big car repair away from poverty.

Final notes:
The Federal Minimum wage was first established in 1937 by the Fair Labor Standards Act. It was based on one wage earner for a family of 4 to meet their basic needs, and if the minimum wage were to be adjusted solely on the basis of inflation over the last 30 years, today it would be $8.98 (according to US Labor Bureau of Statistics, 2006), instead of the current Federal minimum wage of $5.85, or even the Vt Minimum Wage of $7.68.

$21,252 for a family of 4 is the number the State of Vermont is currently using for 2008 public service eligibility, based on projections, and the Fed. Govt. will come out with final Federal Poverty Limit numbers some time this month.

-Betty Smith, VPR Commentary Producer

Listening to this morning's segment speaking with a waitress about minimum wage jobs, I wanted to add some interesting information. First, the segment did not mention that the minimum wage for waitstaff is slighltly over $4.00 an hour, quite a bit less than the "real" minimum wage, so that waitstaff is reliant on the kindness and generosity of their partrons for a so-called livable wage. Also, most waitstaff will tell you that they are "required" to tip-out other employees, like table bussers and bartenders (this means taking tips they earned and paying out 10% or so to these other employees, sometimes amounting to 20% or so of their tips) because the owners of the eating establishment refuse to pay a decent wage. This amounts to subsidizing lower paid employees for the owners' benefit. Many owners require work that is still paid at the $4.plus rate, but is not table service related, a clear violation of state law, but required under threat of losing your job. These might be services like washing dishes, cleaning the restaurant, and even painting the restaurant (I was once required to do this, although I refused). All-in-all, waitstaff get a pretty raw deal for having to be friendly and polite at all times, regardless of how partons treat them (as if they have no brains and deserve to be ordered around and humiliated, sometimes) and regardless of how the establishment owners treat them (as easily replaceable commodities, often). I speak as a 61 year old man who was forced to work a second job (waiter) for the past 10 years. Thank you

Email from Rebecca K. posted with permission:

Even folks making more than minimum wage are finding it difficult to get by. I work for a statewide non=profit organization and find myself in dire straits after I've paid my monthly bills. Why is this? School loan debt. I attended the University of Vermont. I did not receive much financial aid, despite the fact that I graduated with a high GPA. What my college resume lacked was volunteer time and extra-curricular activities (save for band). I couldn't participate in these activities because I had to work. The University looked at this fact and the fact that my parents are still married and my older siblings were not enrolled in college, and deemed me able to pay for over $15,000 of my yearly tuition. I applied for scholarships and was awarded none, probably due to my lack of community and extra-curricular activity involvement. Not to mention the fact that UVM was the only school I applied to. I'm sure Admissions looked at my application and thought, "This girl has no other options, so we don't need to offer her a competitive financial aid package." No, that was not the case. I only applied to UVM because (1) I love Vermont and Burlington and couldn't imagine myself elsewhere, and (2) I knew I would get in with my grades. My parents were able to take out a $10,000 loan for my Freshman year of college, but were unable to help me in my other years. You don't think twice when signing a loan contract. I was enrolled, I had this huge bill, I just wanted to hide, run, not deal with it, but my Mother wouldn't let me quit. She told me everyone has debt. And that's probably true. So now here I am, a "young professional," making less than $25,000 a year, working in a field that resonates with what I do in my personal life and what I studied in school. And I can barely afford to eat, let alone go to a movie, fill my gas tank, get a rabies shot for my cat. I figured out that 84% of my salary is eaten up by rent, utilities, loan payments, my cell phone bill, and car insurance. Do the math. That doesn't leave me with too much left for food, gas, cat supplies, oil changes, insurance co-payments, car registration, savings, or, God forbid, any type of catastrophe. Approaching the big boss man didn't help too much. He simply engaged me in a debate about my lifestyle, insinuating that it was my frivolous spending habits that have landed me in this position (no doubt a product of my age...somehow I think he feels more of a father figure than a boss).

So how do I make ends meet? Thankfully, I'm a musician, so playing shows (not always p