Some low-wage NC workers were living paycheck to paycheck before the coronavirus
With the coronavirus forcing businesses to close or cut hours, local workers are facing unprecedented fear and uncertainty.
Despite recent economic prosperity, many workers haven’t shared in the wealth and aren’t prepared for an impending recession. The spread of COVID-19 upsets the delicate balancing act of those who survive paycheck to paycheck.
Rita Blalock lives close to the Wilmington Street McDonald’s, where she works, in one of Raleigh’s most rapidly gentrifying areas. For six years she’s been able to count on eight-hour shifts. With North Carolina limiting restaurants to take-out, she’s seen her hours cut in half.
“It’s always been a struggle,” the 53-year-old said. “But it’s worse now. I don’t make but $8.50, and where I stay I can barely make the rent.”
Blalock works every day except Thursday and Sunday, doing “a little bit of everything,” and is a familiar face to regulars. Now she worries about catching the disease from a drive-thru customer and can’t even find comfort in a hug or handshake.
“That’s probably the worst part,” she said. “You have friends, coworkers and stuff, and now it is worse. You’re scared to touch them. I’m scared to do anything.”
Blalock been a local leader in the Fight for $15 movement for a higher minimum wage and has advocated for sick leave and paid time off for low-wage workers. Minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
She’s one of the tens of thousands of low-wage workers in the Raleigh area. The Brookings Institution found 44% of all workers in the United States earn low hourly wages. In the Raleigh-Cary Metropolitan Area — which includes Wake, Franklin and Johnston counties — there are more than 200,000 low-wage workers who earn a median hourly wage of $10.18.
As of Friday morning, some 42,000 people in North Carolina had filed for unemployment, almost all of them citing COVID-19, according to the state Commerce Department, The News & Observer reported. That was nearly four times the 11,000 North Carolinians who filed for unemployment in February, federal data shows.
Gig workers vulnerable
The number of gig workers — people who drive Ubers, musicians who tutor and craftspeople who sell at art shows and festivals — are harder to pinpoint. A 2019 survey from Freelancers in America estimates 57 million Americans freelance, but the number jumps to 75 million using a broader definition by the Federal Reserve.
Tammie Sperry, 46, of Clayton, juggles face painting at birthday parties, selling repurposed furniture and painting storefront windows.
Her income has dried up.
“I’m freaking out because my husband is the main provider, but my money does pay for my car and other stuff, and we don’t have a ton of money,” she said.
She cut back after working in the restaurant industry after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about two years ago. The long-hours on her feet made the work unbearable. Her husband works in construction, and with a recession nearing, she wonders how long before it trickles down to him.
“No one is going to have finances to do things,” she said. “It is going to be really tough to pick back up depending on how long this goes on. If it gets worse before it gets better, and it seems to be the case here, it is going to be hard.
A combination of moving and medical issues have left Sperry with little in savings. In a 2019 study, the American Payroll Association found nearly 3 in 4 of workers would have difficulty paying their bills if they missed just one paycheck.
“We are not financially secure to begin with,” Sperry said. “It makes me .... I’m laughing, but I’m not really laughing.”
Everything ‘unprecedented’
Hannah Church has worked at the upscale Oak Steakhouse in downtown Raleigh for nearly a year. A day before NC Gov. Roy Cooper announced bars and restaurants would close she was told she would be out of a job.
Business fell off as soon as the first COVID-19 case was reported in Wake County. Servers would come in just to be tapped to leave earlier and earlier.
“My job has had very little communication with us about how long they expect to be closed, what we should do while they are closed,” Church said. “We’re not expecting any sort of payment or benefits or anything like that during the closure. There really hasn’t been a lot of communication.”
Some full-time employees have benefits like paid-time off or sick leave, but Church isn’t one of them because she works part time.
“Everything that is going on is unprecedented for most people who are alive right now,” she said. “I am 34 and I have never experienced anything like this in terms of the amount of closures and people who are out of work.”
Lost her job in a text
The Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau reports more than 150 events, festivals and conventions have been canceled in Raleigh. Those events would have brought in an estimated 50,000 people and more than $36.2 million in total economic impact.
Lisa Rombach, a banquet captain at the Raleigh Marriott City Center in downtown, found out she had lost her job in a text message.
She’d recently moved from Georgia to Angier, and commuted to downtown to help prepare the hotel for conventions and banquets.
“I was surprised that it hit my job as fast as it did,” she said. “We cut down on events and events were being canceled here and there, but all of the sudden everything was canceled.”
Rombach is among the tens of thousands of people in North Carolina who have filed for unemployment.
People can file an unemployment claim at www.des.nc.gov or by calling 888-737-0259. They will need their Social Security number and details about their work history. A FAQ is online at des.nc.gov/need-help/covid-19-information.
In some ways, Rombach is lucky. She was able to stockpile food and has about a month’s worth of savings. But she was saving it for a down payment on a house.
Companies should have to come up with a plan to help workers, even if it’s just a little bit of money during the crisis, she said.
Child care workers
Zaborah Roane can’t decide if she should file for unemployment or try to stick it out at the Morrisville child care center where she works
She normally helps care for about 125 toddlers. She’s been called a babysitter before, but she knows she’s teaching children about schedules, how to share their emotions and express themselves. With schools closed across the state and more parents working from home, she only has a handful of children now. She enjoys teaching the young
“I am worried because they are not sending us home due to staff issues,” she said. “And we only get paid for the hours we work. It is out of our control that enrollment dropped.”
She’s not “in a good place” financially and had only worked there long enough to save up two sick days — which she has already used. Now, she said, she risks getting sick by working as long as she can to get paid a little bit longer.
“It is a constant struggle, and the pandemic causes more uncertainty,” Roane said. “What are your next steps? Do you keep going to work? Do you decide to stay home? It is a big decision on which way to go.”
