Working Hard and Hardly

Paid: Interviews with Hourly

Staff at a Catholic College

By: Chelsea Gulling

 Introduction
 Minimum Wage

 American minimum wage laws were implemented in 1938

 Since 1997 the minimum wage has remained stationary at $5.15

 National Poverty line: $16,600 for family of three

 Living Wage

 The South Bend Living Wage for one adult and one child is $13.30
per hour

 Typical South Bend wages: Maintenance $15.97

Cleaning/Grounds $9.05
Office Support $11.67
 Thesis

 Through in-depth interviews of hourly

staff at a Catholic College, this research
will show how capitalistic idealism
infiltrates all sects of society, in
essence explaining the failure of Saint
Mary’s College to implement a Living
Wage policy.
 Marx and Modern Labor

 Karl Marx: The

Communist Manifesto
& Estranged Labour

 Capitalism has brought

about two classes who
are in constant conflict:
the proletariat workers
and the bourgeoisie
land owners.
 Literature Review
The Living Wage: A Review of Catholic Social Doctrine

 Karl Marx dies 1883

 Pope Leo XIII: Rerum Novarum (1891)

“Let the working man and the employer make free arrangements, and, in
particular let them agree freely to the wages; nevertheless there underlines a
dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between
man and man, namely that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal
and well-behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the
workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford
him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice”.
 Literature Review
The Sociology of the Working Poor

 Effect of childhood and education on low

wage earnings
 Rubin (1976)
 Johnson (1997)

 Community/Family support
 Edin and Lein (1997)

 (Not) Making it
 Erenreich (2001)
 Mellow (1981)
 Methods for Data Collection

• Research based on 12 in-depth

interviews taken from Late October
to Early November, 2006. All
interviews were conducted at Saint
Mary’s College.

• A “Snowball Sampling Method”

was employed where two individuals
acted as “gatekeepers”.
 Methods for Data Collection
Distribution of Saint Mary’s Hourly Workers

Table 2: Gender and Job Distribution

Table 1: Gender and Job Distribution Among Total Hourly
among Hourly wage workers
Wage Workers
interviewed
Male Female Total Female Male Total
Maintenance 11 - 11

Building Services 14 33 47
Building Services 4 2 6
Attendant
Clerk/Secretary/Administrati 2 75 77
ve assistant Staff Assistant
Building Service 3 - 3
Managerial

Security Guard 5 2 7 Maintenance - 1 1

Security Dispatcher 2 1 3 Administrative 2 - 2

Assistant/Secretar
y
Bookstore/Campus Store 1 3 4

Technicians 4 - 4 Total 9 3 12
Total 39 114 153
Findings
A “Drama Life”

 11/12 informants reported growing up in the

Michiana area
 9/12 informants grew up in a low income families
 3 informants did not graduate high school, of the
remaining 9, only 2 attending a two-year college

“I grew up fast. I was the oldest and had to start cooking

and cleaning and doing the laundry. [When] I got older, 13—
14, I was doing everything cause she [mom] was in and out
of the hospital in the early spring. She would go in for about
a week and then in the fall she would go in for another week.
My dad was the only one who had any money”.
 Findings
“Overworked and Under Paid”

 Nine informants were

referred to college by friend
or family member

 All twelve informants

appreciate Saint Mary’s
College benefits but agree
that they should be getting
paid more

 Heavy work load

“I don’t want to make forty dollars more a month if when the new building
comes we have to run on two people and pull people from where?
Where? It’s gotta be balanced out”.
 Findings
“Overworked and Under Paid”

 Motives for remaining employed at Saint

Mary’s College:
 Stability & Benefits
 “Saint Mary’s College wouldn’t go nowhere. It’s gonna be
here all the time…you know what I’m saying, they’re not
gonna close doors or anything like that”.

 “The pay is crap, but they’re the best benefits I’ve ever
had”

 Appreciation for College, Students and Hourly

Colleagues
 “We’re proud of you seniors when you graduate. I know
the we are not faculty members but we do care ‘cause
when you go, we miss you”
 Findings
Intra-Community Support

 7 informants revealed
a circumstance where
another Saint Mary’s
colleague showed
selfless loyalty

“One of the security guards…she heard me say that

[informant's colleague]’s been giving me a ride back and forth
and she went to the security shack and she found two gas
cards in her purse for $25 a piece and she gave them to us
and said, ‘I know you guys can use these more than me’”
Findings
Inter-Community Support

 The hourly staff members hold

several large annual social functions
to build community
 Value of charity and service

“We have a potluck three times a year. We have

Thanksgiving and Mardi Gras. You bring a dish and
then you go and we have a prayer, we give canned
goods to the poor and then we go to Rainbow
[lounge] and eat. Then we have like a 50/50 raffle
where 50% goes to the winner and 50% goes to
charity”
Findings
“Barely Making It”

 8/12 informants are in a financially unstable

position.

 Lack of Government support

 “The government trying to tell me that I made enough
to support three people. Oh! I didn’t even qualify for
food stamps. They told me I made too much. I didn’t
know whether to laugh or cry”.

 Donation acceptance
 “I have some neighbors that were really cool about
letting me go to their church…bread shower supplies,
whatever…once in awhile I will do that”.
 Discussion
 Despite working at Saint Mary’s for many years, the hourly staff
are living paycheck to paycheck and therefore, never have the
opportunity to accumulate wealth, thus their impoverished
position becomes a permanent state.

 In this society which is driven by capitalistic idealism, the

American dream is dead to low-wage workers. If a minimal
standard of living is not able to be maintained in the present,
thinking of future economic advancement is not a viable option
and generational poverty is allowed to flourish.

 Capitalism forces all American sects of society to dismiss a

livable wage for its employees. However, given the Catholic
Church’s role in the living wage movement, Saint Mary’s College
should serve as a model for other American Institutions.
Questions??