Low-wage, no-benefit work is not the foundation on which the City of Houston should build strong neighborhoods

Before Gloria Benitez heads for work each night she goes over the rules with her five kids: don't answer the door, don't turn on the stove . . . the list goes on. As a single working mom, her 13 year-old daughter is in charge of looking after her siblings while her mother is at work. Gloria supports her family working part-time as a janitor for $5.15 an hour. The $420 she earns monthly has to cover the needs of the family of six.

The hardest part for this working mother is not being able to provide the basic necessities for her kids. "There was one week when I didn't have enough money for food so the kids ate tortillas every day," she says. "My only meal all week was a Coke that a co-worker gave me."

Such low wages take their toll not only on janitors and their families, but on Houston as a whole. Low-wage, no-benefit work is not the foundation on which to build strong neighborhoods, or a strong city, where parents have the time to get involved in their children's school, and families can be active in their local church. At $5.30 per hour, parents who need to pay the bills are forced to dart from one job to the next. (For more information, see "The Problem of Part-Time Work.")

It Doesn't Have To Be This Way

Janitors in many other cities across the United States don't face the same types of impossible choices. They earn decent wages that allow them to make ends meet without working two or three jobs, and have benefits such as family health insurance so that a routine medical problem doesn't break the bank. A janitor in downtown Chicago, for example, earns $13.30 per hour -- well over twice as much as a Houston janitor doing the same work. Why should Houston deserve any less?

The fact is, better paid workers are good for the communities in which they live. They spend the money they earn at local businesses, which leads to reinvestment in Houston's communities. Raising wages for Houston janitors from $5.30 per hour to $10, and moving the jobs toward stable full-time positions, would pump an extra $47 million per year into the Houston economy. Importantly, much of that money would go back into the relatively small group of neighborhoods where many janitors live -- Spring Branch, Gulfton, and the Near North Side, for example -- further amplifying its beneficial effect for Houston.

* Rates reflect levels of current contract in final year.