Debt: $4,500

Source: Credit card



Estimated years until debt free: Uncertain

I work at REI, a store selling outdoor gear, in Seattle. I have worked hard at the co-op since 2014. I am 25 years old. I am in debt and I am barely making it.



Shortly after I was hired, my rent doubled, like happens to so many other people in Seattle. At a loss, I started saving almost my entire paycheck for rent and used my REI credit card to pay for other bills and food. This went on for a few months while I looked for other solutions, but I could not keep going like this. I got a little bit of help from my mother but ultimately had to end my lease early and move all of my belongings into storage.



I found a truck I could live in. I could manage a $200/month truck payment and $150/month for storage but there was no way I could afford a bare-minimum $1,100 Seattle apartment with my REI wages.

By January 2015, I had about $2,200 in credit debt, built up before leaving my apartment. I was in school full-time while working at REI as many hours as I could, outside of my 40+ hour school schedule. I received student loans and grants which helped supplement my wages. I knew that I had to focus on school to have a shot at a better paying job in the future. Sometimes the most challenging question was: “Where do I do my homework?” I would stay at cafes until closing, do my homework at the park and wake up by 5am so I could get to the earliest opening cafe to complete my assignments.



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By July I decided to take time off of school in order to catch up on debt. I got a second job and worked 50-60 hour weeks regularly, often putting in 14-hour days. It seemed as though no matter how hard or how much I worked I was just not able to eliminate my credit card debt. Food spoils quickly without refrigeration so I had to buy costly ready-made meals or fresh foods daily.

I applied for food stamps but was denied because I was not on a lease and my income was not going towards an apartment rental payment. I was in this relentless cycle of not being able to afford to live yet the only way out was to continue my education at the risk of more debt. I decided to take the risk of going back to school. I quit my second job and registered for classes again.



In January 2016 I applied for loans and scholarships through my school. I also supplemented my income by buying food and paying bills with my credit card. I tried to work more hours at REI but I could only get seven hours a week for months. I became desperate for answers on why I was not receiving adequate hours. I was forced to lean again on my credit card to eat and pay for basic essentials.

I applied for food stamps again and this time was turned down because I was not working 20 hours per week. Then in June I learned I was inexplicably not awarded with any scholarships even after maintaining a high GPA and being on the dean’s list for multiple quarters in a row.

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Today, I am about $4,500 in credit card debt and am finally getting 20-30 hours of work per week. But now I’ve been informed I work too much to qualify for food stamps.

REI of course is a consumer co-op, and has long enjoyed a glowing public image. Not many people know just how many workers like me are struggling on unreliable hours and poverty wages. Not many people know that my employer opposed Seattle’s groundbreaking $15 minimum wage law.



But that is beginning to change. When my fellow workers and I founded REI Employees for Real Change, and worked with council member Kshama Sawant and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union to organize our public meeting at City Hall this month, we got our bosses’ attention. But also the attention of whole lot of the Seattle media. We recently learned that a number of the demands we organized around will be met – not just for us but also for workers at REI stores outside of Seattle.



It’s not over yet. We need to make sure get what we’re promised, like a $15 minimum wage starting in August, better scheduling with more notice on hours and immediate cost of living adjustments. And we need to make sure no one is punished for organizing at our workplace, while we keep fighting for a union at REI.

As for me, it will take time to pull myself out of debt.



And it will take time to finish school. But I feel like I’m learning a lot right here, right now: when workers organize and fight back, we can win.