Cara Prince
Cara Prince
Louisville, KY
I work too hard to be struggling like this.
My name is Cara Prince. I’m a mother and a grandmother, and work hard to try to support my family.
I’ve been working temp jobs and fast food jobs for 17 years, and my average pay is about $6 an hour. I’ve been working temp jobs for about 4 years. When I go into work in the morning, I never know if I’ll be working a night shift or a day shift. I never know what my pay will be (but I do know it won’t be good). And I don’t even know for sure if I’ll get a job for that day.
I work hard, but with wages this low I’m really struggling. I try to give my daughter everything she needs, and by the time I’ve made sure that’s she’s healthy and has what she needs for school, there’s nothing left.
I don’t buy anything for myself. The last time I bought an outfit for myself, I spent $10, and ended up giving the shirt to my daughter. I usually end up trying to decide how much of which bills to pay at the end of the month, and there’s never enough to go around.
Raising the wage wouldn't get people in the clear, but it's a start. If it were raised to $7 and it went up as the cost of living went up, we could pay a couple more bills and not worry about, "Oh, is my LG&E [utilities] going to get shut off." If we were paid fairly, we'd be more able to save.
I used to think that this was my fault. But I know that I work too hard to be struggling like this. Gas, food, housing, clothing … all those costs have all gone up but my wages have been stuck at around the $6 mark for 10 years. It’s not a fair system. And it doesn’t have to be this way. Twenty-nine states are raising the wage. It’s time that Kentucky raised the wage, too.
Ten years is too long to not raise Kentucky’s wages. I wish that people were put in our shoes for just a little while. I wish people would have to make low wages, just for one month, to see how we struggle. Then everyone would see that these wages are unreasonable. Please support this legislation. We’re working hard. We deserve fair pay.