For the past six years, Michelle Waters, 32, has commuted from southwest Philadelphia to Cabrini College, where she works as a server in the Cabrini Marketplace.
To get to work, Waters has to take three different means of public transportation. The cost of commuting is just one more factor hitting her hard in the pocketbook as the economy gets worse and worse.
With seven children and one on the way, Waters makes the 45-minute to one-hour commute each morning and night to provide for her family.
“This year more than any other I am really struggling to make ends meet,” Waters said. “The only way for me to continually provide for my family is to keep on working.”
The hardships of the recent recession are hurting the working class and younger job-seekers most of all labor experts say.
Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 240,000 jobs were erased in the month of October, raising the unemployment rate to 6.5 percent.
Last year, Waters worked 33-34 hours per week but because of an increase in her expenses she has increased her hours from 35-40 hours per week.
Waters explained that she finds herself spending more money than she would have a year ago.
Everything from the prices of milk, eggs and cereal have been rising, even her commute has risen in price from $18.75 a week to $22.50.
“I am dishing out a lot of money just to come here every day. My rent has stayed the same but my electric and gas bills have jumped significantly since the last year,” Waters said.
Women with children who work low-income jobs are being faced with many challenges in 2008.
Kristin S. Seefeldt, a sociologist at the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, has been examining 43 women with low-incomes since 2005. In her research, she has found that womens’ expenses have steadily increased, while the number of work hours have decreased.
“You never know what the next day, the next week, the next month or the following year will bring,” dining hall supervisor Consuela Harper, 36, said. “We work for Sodexo, which is contracted with Cabrini. If anything goes wrong we can get the boot easily.”
Harper has been working at Cabrini for the past four years. Prior to her employment with Sodexo she worked at Jefferson Hospital in the medical records room.
During her youth, she had dreams of working in the health care field. Harper attended the Craft Institute to become a medical assistant, but then her first daughter came along.
Currently, she raises all five of her children in Upper Darby on her one income. Although she enjoys working at Cabrini, Harper, like Waters, has really begun to feel the economy’s decline.
“I pray to God that the gas prices go down, the food costs drop and a better job comes my way,” Harper said. “I know a lot of people that graduated with bachelors and masters degrees and there’s still no work.”
Harper explained that she spends over $100 a week alone on gas commuting from Upper Darby to Radnor. A gallon of milk is $4.39, bread is $3.69 and everything from vegetables to can goods are going up in price. “Times are getting rough,” Harper said.
Before she moved to Upper Darby, Harper raised her family in southwest Philadelphia while living in Philadelphia Housing Authority’s public housing. In Philadelphia, she only had to pay for her rent and her other bills.
After moving into a house in Upper Darby, she now has rent, water, gas and electric bills.
“It was a big change and it was really hard at first but once I did a lot of budgeting and managing my money a little better, things got a lot better. Still rough, but I’m managing,” Harper said.
With payments to be made every month, costs going up and the American economy in an unstable position, only time will tell the future of Waters and Harper. Their families come first, they say, and although they love coming to work at Cabrini each day, their futures are unknown.
“It’s really not too late to push for a better job in the future, it’s just getting that foot into the door,” Harper said. “If I could find something in my field that’s a little better than this, then I’m on it.”
