Utahns earning minimum wage testify to needs

Intermountain Catholic

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Lydia Herrera-Sytz testifies before the Utah Workers' Rights Board Feb. 17 about working double shifts for a fast food restaurant for three years, making $5.75 per hour. She receives no overtime, and her paychecks barely allow her to support her three children. She uses supermarket coupons and shops the sales, but still, ?fruits and vegetables are a luxury.? IC photos by Barbara S. Lee

SALT LAKE CITY — They work hard, some of them holding down two or three jobs. They pay their taxes. They send their children to school. Yet, when payday comes they face heart-wrenching decisions: Do I buy food or medication? Do I pay the utility bill, or buy the children shoes that fit?

Four low income Utahns testified before the Utah Worker’s Rights Board Feb. 17 in the Radisson Hotel to plead for a raise in the state’s minimum wage, currently $5.15 per hour. Utah’s minimum wage, which hasn’t changed since 1997, keeps individuals working full-time at that wage earning just $10,700 a year, $5,900 or 36 percent below the 2006 poverty level for a family of three.

Lydia Herrera-Sytz walked to the podium. Throughout her presentation, her three children, ages 7, 2, and 3 months listened restlessly as their mother candidly discussed the constraints of living without sufficient resources.

Herrera-Sytz pleaded with the legislators: "Have they ever had to feed their children ramen sometimes two times a day? I worry about my children not getting the nutrition they need to grow up healthy and how it will affect them later.

"Fruits and vegetables are a luxury, and I can seldom afford to buy them," she said. "I have had to make a choice on whether to buy food or medicine because I am not able to do both.

"If you come to my home, I would have to ask you to sit on the floor, because I only have one chair, no kitchen table and chairs, so we sit on the floor to eat our meals," Herrera-sytz said.

"I work two jobs and I am trying. I am doing the best I can, and I still cannot meet my basic needs," she said. "How can you expect a family to live with respect and dignity with the continued low wages?"

Marilyn Parrish supports two daughters and three grandchildren. Currently filling a seasonal job, Parrish will have to scramble to find a new source of income in April. "I currently work for the Community Action Heat Program which starts in November and ends in April. I love my job, and the program helps people like myself with utilities during the winter. Without it, the winter months would be extremely hard for low income people to keep their homes heated."

Parrish, who must take special medications to mitigate her diabetes, does not find fault with the quality of the work itself. "There is nothing wrong with making and selling tacos. But these wages are not adequate to provide the necessities for my family.

"My children and my grandchildren live at home, and we work together to make ends meet. If we lived separately, none of us would be able to afford rent, let alone other necessities to sustain us," Parrish said.

"I should be able to have a better quality of life," she continued. "I am a productive citizen and a taxpayer. I have many good working years left in me. The alternative would be for me to become a burden to the taxpayers of the state.

"You say you can’t afford it and it would put you out of business. Personally, I say you can’t afford not to."

Polls show a majority Utahns support a raise in the minimum wage. According to a recent Deseret News poll, 77% of Utahns support an increase to the minimum wage. In spite of this, the House version of the bill was defeated in the House Business and Labor Committee later Feb. 17. At the time of writing, S.B. 43 is scheduled to come before the Senate Workforce Services Committee Feb. 21.

"Supporters lament that there are not sufficient votes for passage through the Senate," said Dee Rowland, Government Liaison for the Diocese of Salt Lake City. "We remain hopeful, and wait for something to happen," she said.