Is It Too Much to Ask That a Working Mother Gets Paid Enough to Feed Her Family Without Food Stamps?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/In-The-States/Is-It-Too-Much-to-Ask-That-a-Working-Mother-Gets-Paid-Enough-to-Feed-Her-Family-Without-Food-Stamps

04/02/2013

South Carolina AFL-CIO



South Carolina AFL-CIO sends us this update:

On Monday, more than 50 community members from Boiling Springs and Spartanburg, S.C., participated in a “dine-in” at Copper River Grill in support of the servers, bartenders, hostesses and other workers as they fight for a voice on the job and the right to self-representation at work. The community wore stickers today that read "I Support the Workers of Copper River Grill."

The action coincides with the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march with sanitation workers demanding union recognition in Memphis, Tenn., where he delivered his famous “Promised Land" speech before his assassination.

Ken Riley, president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, met with the workers of Copper River Grill this weekend. Riley said, “We are with these workers because what Copper River is doing is undermining the fundamental pillars of the workforce in America. They are taking us back to the 1920s.”

“I serve food to people all day, but I make barely enough to get by. I am a single mother and I have to think about the future of my 9-month-old son,” said Victoria Ballard, who has been at the Copper River Grill for three years. “Is it too much to ask that a working mother gets paid enough to put food on my own table without having to rely on food stamps?”

FULL story at link.

[shenmue]

1. It's not too much.

Dangit.

Time to institute a higher minimum wage or living wage. Fund it by ending dumb subsidies to oil companies.

[Duer 157099]

2. How about even just a single person?

It used to be that one person could support themself on one salary. No longer.

That's discrimination against single people.

We're all getting fucked over. All of us.

[SoCalDem]

3. These days?...Yes,it is too much to ask.

Service economy jobs are the jobs that used to be reserved for teenagers who did not need to support themselves.

Downward pressure on wages/outsourcing/business cannibalism has brought these jobs into the job pool for everyone...not just the teens who want special clothes, or gas money or dating money.

[slackmaster]

4. Conspicuously absent is any mention of the child's father

Is he alive?