LIVING ON MINIMUM WAGE

Yesterday, I stood in line for over two hours to submit my daughter's paperwork for both food stamps and medical assistance.

I looked around the room, and saw a lot of different faces.

Some were really young - flamboyant and gleeful.

Some were old and ashamed.

A lot were indifferent - this was a regular thing with them.

I don't know all their stories.

But I know my daughter.

She's 33.

She is learning disabled; she's not the sharpest tool in the shed, as the expression goes.

She has had surgery on her foot - she walks with a cane.

And she works fast food - at minimum wage.

She normally gets, at the best, twenty hours a week.

It's the best she can do.

So when you talk about cutting food stamps - you're talking about my girl here.

Not everyone on minimum wage is supporting a family.

But two of Joy's co-workers do.

It isn't as easy as looking at someone spending food stamps while talking on a cell phone with a manicure, and think it isn't really needed.

It isn't labeling minimum wage jobs as only "starter" jobs - if you work hard enough, you'll climb the employment ladder.

For some people, this is it.

And for my daughter, this is it.