My Low Wage Life Essay

Written by: Matt Stockamp

During my entire life, I have never had to mow my lawn. I grew up with the thought engrained in my mind that mowing the lawn was the work of immigrant landscapers my parents had hired. It was the same way with all of my neighbors around me. I never saw any of them doing their own landscaping so I took it as normal to have immigrant landscapers working in the lawns of homes around the neighborhood. It wasn’t until I’d gotten older that I realized I lived in special circumstances. Most people do their own landscaping, but it has become a typical trend in the US to have foreign immigrants working in our backyards.

My family has a good relationship with our landscapers. I have spent a considerable amount of time talking with them as I come and go, and spend time in the yard. They are really good people, and I sympathized with Francisco after hearing his story. When he was only a few years into his marriage, he immigrated to the US to get higher wages. He was going from job to job, traveling up the west coast until he found full time employment at a landscaping company in Portland. Of the $8 an hour that he makes, he sends most of it back to Mexico to support his wife and 4 kids. This leaves him in horrible living conditions in Portland. It has become impossible to find decent housing with such low wages. In an effort to raise his quality of living, he picked up another minimum wage job at a grocery store. While the extra cash gives him just enough to cover rent and food, landscaping and working at the grocery store wares on him physically. After putting in 14 hour days, he told me that he typically imagines what life would have been like if he had stayed in Mexico.

Francisco’s battle with wages is not only fought by him but in alliance with hundreds of thousands of immigrants in search of a better life. While America does offer better wages, the cost of living here is too expensive for someone just making minimum wage. Barbara Ehrenreich and David Shipler personal experience and research have proved that low wages don’t get people by. In high hopes of getting into America, immigrants often look back and say, “I wonder if my life would have been better if I had stayed home.” Work here is too taxing, and the joy of family life and one’s own culture is diminished.

Because of low wage work, it is nearly impossible for Francisco to send his kids to college. This just contributes to the growing population of students who might make it through high school and then enter the work force with the same bleak future as their parents. After hearing Francisco’s story I have not only realized the unique blessing I have in my life to be able to attend college, but I am also compelled to do something to help these immigrants in low wage jobs. I hope to use this next hypertext to address the issues of immigrant landscapers in America, and also to search for solutions to alleviate the problem.