By Anna Lagatutta
After years of being forced to work tough jobs on a low wage, Americans may finally be getting a change; for the better.
President Obama is pushing to raise the minimum wage, potentially changing the lives of families around America. Raising the wage could change college plans for students at Lane, too, giving them a better chance of affording it.
For some students, college money comes directly from their parents’ pockets. Whether these students are working through high school or not, they never had to worry about having enough to go away to college. But some students do not have this luxury; they are forced to work after school, over the weekends, and make their own income if they want a four-year college experience.
“I’m paying for my whole tuition by myself. Honestly, working is rough and the fact that we get paid such a low price to do so much work is unfair,” said Gracie Omachi, Div. 584.
Omachi works part-time at the Walgreens in her neighborhood. As an employee of 2 years, she is required to control the register and work in the stockroom. She is still working off of a minimum wage salary, which makes the idea of paying a full college tuition unnerving.
What is challenging for a lot of students is that they aren’t even making $8.25 hourly, since much of their money is reduced due to taxes.
“I wouldn’t even mind that one third of it goes to taxes if I felt they actually put the money to good use. But the other day I hit a pothole so big, I had a flat,” Omachi said.
In the past few months, Obama has travelled around the country strongly urging to raise the national minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Working students here at Lane have been dealing with the low wage, and among those struggling with it are the students who are working to pay their way through college.
Tess Conway, Div. 558, has also been working her way through her junior year. Although Conway is not paying her full tuition, she is helping way some of the costs.
“Raising minimum wage would help me pay for personal expenses during college, and also travel expenses so I’d be able to travel home more often,” Conway said.
On Mar. 11, Obama visited a Gap in New York City to show his support of raising the minimum wage. In recent months he has had direct contact with a lot of people struggling with such jobs and is persuing the campaign with great ambition.
“I’m glad Obama is pushing it. People who work so hard and all the time deserve a higher minimum hourly wage,” said Shannon Ernst, Div. 570, who has been working at a movie theater for the past 6 months.
Whether it’s due to the fact that the raise will not make a large impact, or that it just doesn’t make sense, not everybody believes that the minimum wage needs to be raised. Vance Rockford, Div. 582, has worked with children at a park for the past two summers.
“[Minimum wage] should be raised, but it’s not really necessary because it won’t help out that many families, or [help] kids pay tuition since it wouldn’t be a high enough pay raise,” Rockford said.
After working a minimum wage job himself, Rockford feels that the salary should depend more heavily on the specific position, and the tasks the worker is required to do.
“I was dealing with kids. I think [wage] depends on the job and the workload,” Rockford said.
Either way, Obama is still determined to spread the word and make a change. Around the city there have been several petitions and protests against the current base pay. Although she hasn’t participated in one, when asked if she would be willing to, Omachi responded:
“Yes. Definitely.”
