In Detroit, labor secretary hears pleas to boost minimum wage

Frank Witsil | Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — One-by-one, sometimes in tears, Detroit workers on Tuesday opened up to U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, telling him how little they earn and why they joined a labor movement — Fight for 15 — that is seeking $15 an hour wages, as well as better benefits and opportunities for employees in the restaurant, retail and health care industries.

They talked about how hard it is to work in low-wage jobs and how they struggle to use that income to care, not just for themselves, but also for their kids — and friends. Some of them, they said, work more than one job, to the point of exhaustion — and still aren't able to make ends meet.

"It's not a big-bang theory that we need $15 an hour," Pamela Gillian-Baxter, 57, a Detroit home care worker, said at an informal gathering at Central United Methodist Church in Detroit. "All of us have to pay our own bills. If we get that kind of money, we'll feel better; we'll be able to take care of our parents, and the places we work at will be better taken care of, too.

"It's a struggle," she told Perez, admonishing the labor secretary at the end of her talk to "write that down."

President Obama has been seeking a $10.10 federal minimum wage for two years, and Perez’s visit is part of a national tour leading up to Labor Day.

Perez, along with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and labor groups leaders, nodded sympathetically and spoke passionately about raising wages.

Restaurant owners and other employers counter that their businesses are especially price-sensitive and that significantly increasing wages would be challenging.

In addition, they said, the wage hikes would translate into increasing costs to their customers and lost jobs.

But Perez promised the workers he was taking their stories — and some notes — back to Washington. He did not specifically support a raise in the minimum wage to $15.

"Nobody should be enduring the indignities that you endure when you are trying to work hard, play by the rules," Perez told them in response. "That's not who we are as a nation. I want to make sure you know this isn't just a fly-in and a fly-out. We are part of this movement."

Workers in Detroit and other cities nationwide have been organizing and rallying for higher wages and better benefits at fast food restaurants as well as gas stations and retailers. Their efforts seem to be gaining traction with voters.

Last year, a national survey by the Pew Research Center showed 73% of people favored increasing the minimum wage.

In May, Los Angeles voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, double the federal minimum wage. Seattle and San Francisco also passed laws that raise wages to $15 an hour, and Chicago passed an increase that gradually raises wages to $13.

A state law signed in July, prohibits Michigan municipalities to exceed state or federal minimum wage requirements.

Michigan's minimum wage is now $8.15 an hour. It is set to increase to $8.50 an hour on Jan. 1, $8.90 an hour on Jan. 1, 2017, and $9.25 an hour on Jan. 1, 2018. The law allows employers to pay tipped workers and teens less.

Perez said the meeting at the historic church was significant because it connected the fight for better wages to struggles decades earlier for civil rights, as one of the places where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke.

"I see the grit of people who live here," Perez said. "I see the chronic optimism of folks who got kicked in the gut. But, as the song from the civil rights moment goes, we fall down, but we get up — and we get up stronger."

One mother, Alicia Roberson, who works at a Dollar Tree store for $8.15 an hour, said to Perez she was evicted two days ago, and was living out of her car with her three young children, ages 11, 9, and 7.

"I would love to make $15 an hour," she said. "If you have children, you know you want your children to be OK. And that's all we really want at the end of the day, is for your children to be OK. It's really hard, when your children are hungry and you can't feed them. It is terrifying to know you don't make enough money to feed your kids."