Tag: living wage in Memphis

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Haves and the Have-Nots

Rent is too high for most Memphians. (Photo: Designer491 | Dreamstime.com)

The gap between the haves and the have-nots gets larger every year. Some effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are still being felt by the masses. One of those is the rise of rental prices. Rent will never be the same.

We could not predict a virus interrupting our economy or U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Now that we are here, we have been subjected to inflation. Everything is more expensive now, but one’s biggest expense is housing, especially with rent increases. It is taking increasingly more money to live comfortably.

SmartAsset did a study earlier this year based on the 50/30/20 rule that 50 percent of your income goes toward necessities (bills, transportation, groceries), 30 percent on entertainment, and 20 percent on savings and investments. Based on this metric, they compiled a list of the 99 largest cities, ranking them in terms of the lowest salary needed to sustain a comfortable life (not living paycheck to paycheck). Memphis was ranked 25th, listing $85,696 as the lowest salary needed to sustain a single person.

According to the 2022 census, the per capita income in Shelby County was $36,230. Most residents only have a high school diploma, but the SmartAsset study suggests that these same residents need to make $85,696 a year to live comfortably. It is suggested that no more than 30 percent of your income go toward rent, but half of all renters in Tennessee are spending more than that.

Affordable low-income housing exists, but the requirements often include making less than $30,000 to $40,000 a year. This leaves those in the middle in a bind. Your income is above the poverty line, yet you do not make enough to be comfortable.

Because of rent increases, some people have to resort to finding roommates or are forced to relocate to a less desirable neighborhood. Rent increases promote the displacement of loyal tenants for those more well-off. This affects proportionally more low-income and middle-class tenants.

The need for rent control regulations in Tennessee is paramount. In 2021, lawmakers tried to amend TCA Title 66, Chapter 35, which prohibits local government authorities from enacting rent control. The amendment was withdrawn.

In a county where most have not completed undergrad or graduate school, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to survive in this inflation-riddled economy. There needs to be a union organized to allow the community’s voices to be heard. Legislation for rent control should be introduced and passed. Locally, we should have the freedom to give tenants more rights instead of all the power belonging to the landlord. Opponents say rent control would suppress new housing construction. One could argue that supplying affordable housing to the average American exceeds that risk. Fewer evictions and more stable tenants able to pay rent prevent homelessness and time spent in civil court over evictions.

In the meantime, it’s understood that one must do their own part to sustain a lifestyle that can comfortably afford a nice place even with rent increases. One must consider going back to school, getting another degree (potentially raking in more student debt) so they can potentially get promoted to a higher paying job. Nevertheless, the middle class deserves to live in safe neighborhoods with reasonable rates. Without any rent control protections, a landlord or property owner can raise the rent as soon as the lease expires to match the market, irrespective of the local county’s average income.

In the zip codes with the highest number of homicides, rent is cheaper. But the average citizen wants to live in a safe neighborhood where they don’t fear car theft, robberies, and violence. The safer areas in Memphis cost more. Do only those with the means deserve to live in a safe environment where their kids can ride their bikes without cause for concern? There is a price tag on having peace of mind when you go to sleep at night. There is an income level that dictates the probability of whether your car will still be in your driveway the next morning.

It’s understood that year after year price increases affect our lives, but it should be a reasonable percentage. It shouldn’t mean having to move because it became unaffordable. Years ago, one expected maybe $50 to $100 increase (monthly) after a lease renewal, but I have seen apartment complexes increase by the hundreds of late.

Hopefully there is further discussion on this topic with meaningful discourse toward finding common ground. There should be compassion toward low- and middle-income citizens who want to live in safe neighborhoods where they can raise their children. If more people speak to lawmakers, sign petitions, work together to get legislation signed, and raise overall awareness, we can find a solution to a growing issue that affects the have-nots.

Bria Michele is a native Memphian who has always had a passion for writing. Outside of publishing her first novel this year, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, dancing, skating, and crocheting.

Categories
News News Feature

Silver Rights Movement

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would have turned 86 last Thursday, once said: “Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week.”

Keep this in mind whenever you see nearly giddy news coverage about new jobs coming to the Memphis area — whether it’s 900 new Williams-Sonoma warehouse jobs just across the state line in Mississippi, 400 jobs added with Target’s new fulfillment center, or the 282 jobs expected after Graceland gets a new hotel.

“But dignity is also corroded by poverty, no matter how poetically we invest the humble with simple graces and charm. No worker can maintain his morale or sustain his spirit if in the market place his capacities are declared to be worthless to society,” King also said.

A living wage in Memphis is around $13 an hour. Average wages at Conduit Global, a call center that opened last year a mile from the nearest bus stop, are around $12. The base wage for Electrolux line workers is less than that.

Today’s hourly wages have the same purchasing power they did when Jimmy Carter was president. (That’s 1979, for those too young to remember.)

Thousands, if not millions of black people, “are poverty stricken — not because they are not working, but because they receive wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the main stream of the economic life of our nation,” King said.

In December, the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent, the lowest in six years. That sounds like good news, until you view it through the lens of history and race.

“According to the official statistics,” King wrote in February 1968, “Negro unemployment is twice that of whites.” Fifty years later, the gap remains. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black unemployment in December was 10.4 percent.

To lure companies to town, city and county government regularly give out multimillion-dollar incentive packages. In the case of Graceland, the tax breaks amount to a staggering $141 million, or more than $440,000 in incentives per job created.

The message from big business and elected officials to the thousands of Memphians mired in low-wage jobs is clear: Be grateful for whatever you get.

Meanwhile, workers struggling to make ends meet have questions that the dealmakers and elected officials don’t answer. Will they offer a steady schedule so that a single mother (there are an estimated 43,000 single moms in Memphis) can be at home most weeknights to check her children’s homework and tuck them in?

Will these jobs come with health insurance (which is critical since Governor Haslam refuses to accept federal Medicaid expansion funds and instead is trying to create his own version of Obamacare)?

Will workers be able to earn sick days, so that catching a stubborn cold doesn’t mean forfeiting several days of pay or coming to work and spreading the germs to coworkers?

Are the job sites accessible by public transportation?

Do these jobs pay enough for a family to save for a rainy day, their children’s education, and their own retirement?

“What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?” King asked. The business community’s argument has been that the wealth created for businesses eventually trickles down to the workers, although it’s workers’ labor that creates the wealth.

The Pew Research Center recently released a report showing that a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats, especially when the sailors are black and brown. “[E]ven as the economic recovery has begun to mend asset prices, not all households have benefited alike, and wealth inequality has widened along racial and ethnic lines,” wrote Pew researchers.

“The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010,” the report continues. “Likewise, the wealth of white households is now more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households, compared with nine times the wealth in 2010.”

To borrow from Operation Hope founder John Hope Bryant, the civil rights movement must give way to a “silver rights” movement.

Remember that King’s final and fatal mission to help striking sanitation workers was part of his quest for economic justice.

“Never forget that freedom is not something that must be demanded by the oppressor. It is something that must be demanded by the oppressed. If we are going to get equality, if we are going to get adequate wages, we are going to have to struggle for it.”

Are you ready to struggle?

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (September 11, 2014) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Chris Shaw’s post, “Arrests Made at Fast Food Strike” …

Today, I took to the streets in support of a union for fast food workers. We were peaceably walking down the sidewalk on Poplar Avenue when we were stopped by two dozen fairly polite police officers. They did not want us in front of the McDonalds. They demanded to see a parade permit. This is silly. Why would one need a parade permit to walk peaceably down the sidewalk. Nevertheless, they blocked our path. Apparently, someone had told them not to allow us in front of McDonalds even though we had already walked in front of dozens of other businesses without incident.

The police, though polite, deliberately provoked the crowd by stopping them from a peaceful and lawful walk on the sidewalk. Frustrated about being illegally stopped, some of us, in a moment of enthusiasm attempted to wander out onto Poplar. Several were arrested. No one resisted. We put our hands up and cheerfully shouted, “Don’t shoot!” A paddy wagon appeared magically on the scene. The police, with cameras trained on them, were careful not to be violent. I continued to walk in the street to the front of McDonalds where I stood alone with my sign. Although I had disobeyed them, the police decided not to arrest the older affluent-looking white guy. I don’t feel any antagonism for the boys in blue. It’s a very tough job. I had to walk through the police barricade to return to my car. I said, “Surely a fellow union member will not stop me from helping other folks start a union.” No one did. Looking back, I think the only people who misbehaved were the sorry folks who crossed the picket line to eat at McDonalds.

Bill Stegall

Giving uneducated workers a living wage is another crutch that promotes welfare. It also would cripple small businesses trying to compete with the deeper pockets of large companies, eventually shutting down thousands of businesses that lose their margins because they cant afford to pay for labor, and customers cant afford to pay for food.

B1971

Greg Cravens

Ya B1971, a living wage is unhealthy! We need an undead wage!

Ern

Ern, I think for once you may have something there. Zombie food handlers. Eliminates the small talk and pressure to super size.

But, personally, I find eating food prepared by people who can’t afford health care or have a sick day off adds that extra excitement to dining.

CL Mullins

About Randy Haspel’s Rant about discriminatory night spots …

Thank you for Randy Haspel’s Rant about the demoralizing covert racism in Memphis’s nightlife scene. I can’t recall ever seeing this problem addressed in the Flyer, so I found myself cheering aloud while reading. 

The Flyer frustrates me, as a black Memphian, because many of the venues and hotspots you promote are unwelcoming toward people of color. My white friends have served as unofficial passports over the years, because there seems to be this unspoken rule that our experiences may not be as pleasant if we show up alone or — gasp! — with a group of black people. All of my black friends have similar stories. Some places we’ve even blacklisted. Pun unintended.

I’ve had staff and patrons stare daggers at me for daring to step foot in more than one Cooper-Young bar and had concertgoers equally fascinated with my presence: (“I just think it’s cool you like this kind of music.”) I simply want to eat, drink, flirt, dance, (as my people are wont to do) and catch a St. Vincent show — without any trouble. It was nice to know that someone on the other side can see how screwed up it is around here. 

Taylor Calvert