By Robert Nothoff
Our economy functions best when an honest day’s work equals an honest day’s pay. If we are to truly call ourselves America’s Finest City, nobody should have to lose a day’s pay to care for a sick loved one, and nobody who works full time should have to live in poverty. Sadly, for many of San Diego’s hard working residents, this premise is a fantasy.
A recent study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research pointed out that nearly half of San Diego’s private workforce lacks access to a single day of earned sick leave, including 82% of people who prepare our food and nearly 75% of the people who care for our children. Another report by the Center on Policy Initiatives and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development highlighted that even with full-time work, 1 in 4 San Diego households can’t make basic ends meet, and concluded that a single person with no children or spouse would need to earn $13.09 an hour in order to meet their basic needs without public or private assistance.
To address this issue, Council President Todd Gloria has proposed an initiative that would grant all working San Diegans the opportunity to earn at least 5 days of sick leave, and would gradually increase the city’s minimum wage to $13.09 an hour over three years. Providing access to earned sick days and raising the minimum wage creates stronger, safer work places, restores work/family balance, and has positive economic benefits. If the council president’s proposal is enacted, the local impact would be significant. More than 260,000 additional San Diegans would have access to earned sick days. Roughly 200,000 San Diegans would earn paychecks that provide approximately $2,800 more annually for their family. And, most significant of all, the overall annual benefit to the economy would be approximately $580 million into the pockets of low-wage earners, who, as research has shown, are likely to spend that money directly back in the local economy.
But what do these numbers really mean? To fully understand the story behind the numbers, we must go to those who will be directly impacted. I’ve had the privilege of listening to the stories and testimonies of many San Diegans living on low wages. One mother expressed that she fears not having the ability to take a day off to care for her daughter when she becomes ill. Many others shared stories of being forced to make the heart-wrenching choice of which bills to pay, and which bills to skip until next month, because their wages don’t cover the basic costs of living. Many people talk about the challenges of working multiple jobs because one full-time, minimum-wage job isn’t enough to afford basic expenses in San Diego.
The result is that many parents are not able to enjoy basic fundamental rights like helping their child with homework, teaching their son or daughter to ride a bike, or taking their child to soccer practice, because they’re too busy working at a second or third job. When people are forced to work multiple jobs, children suffer. That’s not the vision of San Diego I want for my children, nor are those the values that we should accept as a society.
Minimum wage workers are an essential part of our societal fabric. They are the backbone to the things we most enjoy in life—they are the people who serve us our coffee in the morning and prepare the very food we eat, they are the people who beautify our streets, roads and gardens, and they are the janitors who clean our schools and offices. Passing the earned sick days and minimum wage proposal will allow these deserving, hardworking people the ability to care for their child or loved one when they become ill without fear of losing a day’s pay, and will signify that San Diego has agreed to fulfill its promise that no full-time worker shall live in poverty. As America’s Finest City, we must do right by our neighbors and their children. We must place San Diego on the right side of history. We must Raise Up San Diego!
Robert Nothoff is a research and policy analyst at the Center on Policy Initiatives. Originally from the Metro Detroit area, his personal experiences shaped his career path in social justice. Robert possesses both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Michigan State University and UC Irvine, respectively.
