by Angela Carter
NEW HAVEN - Pamela Brazzell, a mother of two, goes to work at 2 a.m. to bundle and deliver newspapers for a contractor, PCF.
Seven days a week the city resident works three to four hours and, after taxes, has less than $200 a week to put toward daily and monthly expenses such as food, rent, clothing, utilities and public transportation.
Brazzell is one among some 65,000 workers in Connecticut celebrating an increase in the state's minimum wage, which will go from its current rate of $7.65 per hour to $8 per hour Jan. 1, and to $8.25 an hour in January 2010. For full-time workers, the increase will translate into an extra $14 per week.
"After you pay for everything, there's no enjoyment," Brazzell said. "It's important that everyone can survive and take care of their families like they're supposed to."
She is living with a friend while getting on her feet and participating in a non-paying internship at Workforce Alliance to learn marketable job skills and business etiquette.
"She's a very talented person. She's smart," said Freeman Holloway, the transition services coordinator at Workforce Alliance who gives interns their assignments and runs programs that help people who are in between jobs and ex-offenders who are re-entering society.
"I always tell them: Nine-to-five beats 10-to-life," Holloway said. "Eventually they're gone and they get hired."
Although she is not earning a salary at Workforce Alliance, Brazzell said it is a valuable investment of her time and could qualify her for tuition assistance in a career training program. "Being broke all the time, I can't do it," she said. "I have to stay open to possibilities right now, but I want to be in the health care field helping the elderly."
Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the legislation to raise the minimum wage, but the General Assembly eked out an override last week during a special session.
"That will mean about $700 (more) a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it can make a big difference," said state Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, a proponent of the bill. "A lot of single mothers with children are trying to cobble together a living, sometimes working several jobs at the minimum wage."
Tonya Brooks, also a mother of two, works part-time as a sales representative at Macy's. She lives in the transitional housing facility Stepping Stone, run by Christian Community Action.
With about $250 per week in her pocket, rent is the first priority, she said. "Then, there's the lights and the gas. After that, you have to pick wisely. Do I get the kids shoes or do I go to the store and get cereal?"
Stepping Stone has provided her with a "support team," Brooks said. Her family has a roof over its head, her sons can participate in after-school programs and she's learning how to budget and manage her finances.
"Basically, they're preparing us so that when we walk out that door, we don't end up back in the same situation," the aspiring social worker said. "My goal is to have a career, not just a job."
Christian Community Action Executive Director Bonita Grubbs said the agency also runs a food pantry for families in the city's Hill neighborhood. Throughout 2007, the pantry distributed an average of 500 food bags per month. But data from last month shows that number spiked to 736 bags, Grubbs said.
"Every dollar makes a difference with the individuals we serve," Grubbs said. "The money runs out before the month does.
State Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, said opponents of raising the minimum wage claimed such a move would be bad for business. Looney said there also were claims that mostly students were earning the minimum wage at temporary and entry-level jobs, but state Department of Labor statistics showed that 55 percent of workers earning the minimum wage are over the age of 24.
The Employment Policies Institute, a Washington-based research organization that studies public policy, urged lawmakers not to override Rell's veto, saying it would force the loss of an estimated 500 jobs and would hit workers with the lowest skill levels the hardest.
"We say that we value work, that we value entry-level jobs the minimum wage pays for," Harp said. "I'm proud to have been part of a legislature that could move beyond partisanship and do something for working people."
