The working poor

Tales of the Poor, Working to Survive in America by Jeannette Catsoulis

For most of us, a 25-cent increase in hourly wage would hardly be cause for celebration. But for at least one of the subjects of "Waging a Living" - an eye-opening, often heartbreaking documentary about America's working poor - that pittance could mean the difference between disaster and survival.

Filmed over a three-year period in the Northeast and California, "Waging a Living" tracks four ethnically diverse, low-wage workers as they struggle to bridge the gap between paycheck and expenses. "There's no American dream anymore," sighs Jean Reynolds, 51, a certified nursing assistant supporting three children and four grandchildren on $1,200 a month. In common with 78% of low-wage workers, Jean has no health insurance and faces eviction when she must choose between paying her rent and purchasing medication for her terminally ill daughter.

Middle-aged divorcee Mary Venittelli works as a waitress for $2.13 an hour and feeds her three children from a food pantry in a neighboring county to avoid the shame. Applying for yet another credit card to pay the bills, Mary is resigned: "What do I have to worry about, someone stealing my identity? Please!"

We have all heard the appalling statistics. More than 30 million Americans work low-wage jobs, and more than half the people who began the last decade in poverty are still there. Many are single mothers, battling a system intent on getting people off welfare without lifting them out of poverty. The documentary reveals a country rife with income inequality, short-term political thinking and ineffective tracking of deadbeat dads, a country in which filling a simple prescription for a child's asthma medication can put a family in the street.

Barbara Brooks, a mother of five and a recreational counselor, is bewildered. "I tell everyone I'm hustling backwards," she says, her faith in the golden ring of education severely dented when a sorely won associate's degree yields a raise of $450 in income a month and - shockingly - $600 less in public assistance.

Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed covered some of this ground.

MORE THAN 30 MILLION Americans work at low-wage jobs that don't give them a decent living. Is this something our pols will attend to? Our Republican pols? Our Democratic pols? Don't hold your breath.