Rural poor welcome proposed increase

The House and Senate have passed separate measures.
CHERAW, S.C. (AP) -- Louise McQueen has scrimped all her life, working two jobs while rearing two daughters alone and now earning 5.47 an hour as a cook in a small restaurant. So it's a comfort to her in this rural corner of South Carolina that Congress this week moved closer to raising the minimum hourly wage to 7.25 over the next two years.
"I can get by, but this is going to help me a lot," said McQueen, 54, who has taken one vacation in her life and who considers her sole luxury to be watching television.
More than 10 percent of hourly workers in South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi would see wage increases if the federal proposal goes through -- the highest such percentages in the nation, according to the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. In South Carolina, that translates to 179,000 people.
The House and Senate have approved bills raising the hourly minimum wage from 5.15 to 7.25 over two years. The Senate bill paired the wage increase with tax breaks for small businesses. The House, initially reluctant to add similar tax cuts, passed a smaller tax package Friday. House and Senate negotiators will have to work out the differences.
Who will be affected
Economists say many of the low-wage workers expected to see their pay increase right away live in rural areas such as Cheraw, where unemployment is high and there is less competition for labor.
Some businesses, such as restaurants, may lose money from such an increase because their workers would have to be paid more. Others, such as tobacco companies and dollar stores, would likely see more profits, according to Merrill Lynch.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, manufacturing plants flocked to rural South Carolina for cheap labor and lower overhead costs, only to leave after they discovered they could do even better overseas. At the same time, the state's textile base also headed offshore, leaving a string of shuttered plants and mills dotting the rural landscape.
McQueen worked at a small sewing plant in Cheraw before it closed its doors in the early 1990s. As far as she is concerned, it's high time Congress paid attention to the rural poor.
"They forgot about us," she said.
Nationwide, an estimated 13 million workers would be affected, either directly or indirectly. The policy institute estimates that many workers already making the new federal minimum could expect pay increases after lower-wage earners start making more.
Down the road from Cheraw, a poster at the Community Development Corp. of Marlboro County gives mute testimony to how long it's been since the minimum wage was raised. It notes the wage will be increased to 5.15 an hour Sept. 1, 1997.
Advocates' reactions
The Rev. Charles Malloy, who runs the Bennettsville-based agency that helps people find affordable housing, said the wage hasn't kept up with rising housing and utility costs over the past decade. He and other advocates said people still will need help even if it goes up.
Some 160 miles away, outside Charleston, Kirby Platt juggles tuition and rent while working a part-time job for 6.50 an hour to help pay her way through technical college. She's also hoping for the federal pay bump.
"Of course it would be helpful, going to school and supporting myself right now," said Platt, 19.
It still takes on average 11 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment with utilities in South Carolina, said Sue Berkowitz, director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, which provides legal services to the poor.
"Raising the minimum wage to 7.25 is still asking a lot of people to live modestly," she said.
South Carolina tourism officials and advocates for the poor say a ripple effect of rising pay from a minimum wage increase would especially be felt among those who work in the state's 16 billion tourism industry and other areas where employers already pay close to the proposed increase because they have trouble finding workers.
Louisiana's health-care industry is another good example. Officials say a worker shortage caused by Hurricane Katrina drove up hospital wages in the southern part of the state, and they fear the effects of a federal wage increase on overall health-care costs.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.