At the end of August and beginning of September I spent three weeks working for a day labor agency which contracted my labor to various employers in the Charleston area, paying me minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, while employers paid the day labor agency about $13 an hour for my labor.
The day labor market thrives on fixed prices and margins of profit. The margin between what’s paid, at $7.25 an hour, and what’s collected, at $13 an hour, becomes profit and covers costs. The largest costs are worker's compensation and liability. For construction cleanup, a common construction task, the worker’s compensation rate is 12.06% for every dollar. Yet as the largest cost, worker‘s compensation, along with minimum wage paid to laborers, is still just over $8 an hour. In spite of which the day labor industry grosses billions of dollars per year nationwide.
The Issue.
Many of the men and women who work for day labor agencies are homeless and near homeless. Here at the Star Gospel Mission, of the men who work, nearly all of them work for a day labor agency. Day labor agencies attract homeless and near homeless laborers; they are located in low income urban areas, they provide daily transportation, and they pay you the same day you work.
It almost seems day labor agencies target homeless and near homeless laborers. But in doing so their business model creates a web that benefits from their labor, and in turn from keeping them homeless and near homeless: That’s the issue.
The employment provided is anything but the kind of employment that might help the homeless and near homeless escape their situations. It’s a web. And it isn’t moral.
An Idea.
What if a day labor agency eliminated the profit and reinvented The Margin so that instead of creating and benefiting from The Issue, it addressed it? What if they themselves attempted to bridge that Margin, creating it from the homeless and near homeless perspective? Could the quicksand be reversed into steps on a ladder?
What if they addressed their laborers as clients, and treated them with respect, compassion, and the love of Christ?
This is The Purpose of In Every Story, to address an issue that nobody in Charleston is addressing. To set up a sustainable model that could be adopted and spread. To allow God to make a difference in the life of someone else, even if only our own.
These are the nuts and bolts, of which we’ll be tightening, loosening, and showing you more. Hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving.
No comments:
Post a Comment