Suburban America’s Form of Discrimination

While visiting my son recently who lives in the suburbs of Boston, I noticed many “help wanted” signs in the windows of various stores. The suburbs were clean-prosperous looking. All the homes were well painted and groomed with fine lawns. Yet amidst all these welldeveloped communities, the stores were having a difficult time finding employees

Curious why, I asked my son what seemed to be the problem that so many stores were hurting for employees. Were the salaries low? Was the work menial? Weren’t there enough people to fill the jobs? He suggested we enter several of the stores and speak to some of the employees and with several managers he knew.

I was told that the average starting salary is between $7 to $8 per hour. And after a month the salary is raised to about $9 per hour. For example, McDonald’s is paying most of their employees $8 to $9 per hour, and they cannot find enough employees. So why aren’t people applying for these jobs?

It seems that most of the employees commute from Boston to work in the suburbs. This involves at least 45 to 60 minutes one way driving on the freeway, and, of course, the same amount of time returning. Thus they spend about two hours driving to and from work in addition to the unusual eight hour work time.

When I inquired why do these people have to come from Boston to work in the suburbs, I was informed that few of them can afford to live off the salary they earn even at $8 to $9 per hour. Using $8 per hour times 160 hours per month equals a gross salary of $1,280. This appears to be a high income compared to the average income in the CNMI in the private sector. So why aren’t more employees available if these jobs offer such a good salary?

After deducting social security and income taxes amounting to about $288, the employee nets $ 992.00 per month. Here was the most startling news!

A decent onebedroom apartment rent starts at $700 up plus utilities. How can the employee who nets $992 per month afford to rent an apartment at $700 ? What will he use for food, clothing and incidentals?

When I inquired why doesn’t a developer build low income housing for these people, the reply startled me. Low income housing would invite the same type of people to return to the suburbs that the present homeowners escaped from. The residents don’t want “that type of people” (undesirables–“lower class of people”) living in their neighborhood. Thus most of the employees are forced to commute from Boston low-income areas to work in the suburbs and return home to their “own neighborhood” in the evening.

It is ironical that residents in the suburbs commute to Boston to work and residents from lower income neighborhoods of Boston commute to work in the suburbs. It appears to be a vicious cycle. Each is trying to earn a living while trying to avoid rubbing shoulders with each.

When I think of the criticism we in the CNMI constantly receive from the Federal government concerning our minimum wage and attitude towards nonresident workers, I can’t help but feel the hypocrisy that Americans live under. We import labor because we don’t have enough locally and pay wages several times over what the laborer would receive in his own country.

In America, labor is plentiful and is paid what appears to be a high salary. However many are kept out of the mainstream of American society by a subtle form of discrimination. What is the moral of this? You figure it out.