Anderson wages fall short of the recommended living wage as SC lawmakers try to close gap

Jennifer Albertson gets to work 30 minutes before she's supposed to every morning because she can't afford to kill that time after dropping her daughter off at school. For Albertson, 23, picking up breakfast or coffee on her way to work would mean forfeiting one of her family's necessities that month.

Albertson works full-time for a federal service organization assessing people's needs for government assistance and other services in Anderson. Every month she takes home $944, which works out to be $5.90 per hour. It's less than minimum wage because the organization pays its employees an "allowance."

On Jan. 1, 20 states increased their minimum wages. South Carolina was not one of them. 

No minimum wage law in South Carolina

South Carolina is one of five states without a state minimum wage law, according to the Department of Labor. That means the minimum wage will be the same as the federal wage, unless the Legislature works to enact one.

Several legislators want that to happen. There are four bills in the state House and one in the state Senate that seek to establish a state minimum wage. They would raise rates up to $13.

Sen. John Scott has introduced legislation for a state minimum wage in every session since 2014. None of those bills have ever made it out of committee, but Scott will continue to try, even though he isn't convinced the bill will see bipartisan support.

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“We have not kept up with the inflation rate in terms of wages,” he said. “With the large amount of poverty, you can't help but to have some concern about how we raise people out of poverty.”

Scott's bill would establish a minimum wage that would correspond with inflation. His preliminary goal is $8.25, which for a full-time employee would be about $2,000 more per year. 

“That’s enough to put some food on the table," Scott said.

Albertson worked at AnMed before starting this position two months ago making $10.15 an hour, but she was only part time and didn't get enough hours to make ends meet then either. She took the yearlong position with the service organization because the career she wants is in the same field and requires at least a year of experience while she works on her degree.

Albertson originally planned to work part-time at AnMed in addition to her full-time job, but she couldn't make it work with AnMed and the program she's in requires her to work different after-hours events.

She finds it ironic that her job is to "help people become self-sufficient," but she can't take care of her family. She spends $360 each month on childcare plus money for her daughter's food while there and $400 for her car payment and insurance.

She depends on food pantries and her family for food each month. She's happy with how well her daughter is doing at her current daycare, so she's willing to spend the $360 each month.

It is a political decision

Curtis Simon, an economics researcher and professor at Clemson, and other economists say the decision about whether or not to raise the minimum wage is more of a political one more than economic one.

He said raising the minimum wage is a matter of supply and demand, meaning fewer jobs are available when the minimum wage is higher, but he also admits it's not always that straightforward.

"It's always been a political question, always will be," he said. "It's hard to write an economic model that say, 'This is what we should do.' That's not the world we're living in. We're living in a world with people and governments."

SC House bill

Rep. Kambrell Garvin's House bill would increase the state minimum wage to $10.10 over a three-year period. 

"I recognize that $7.25, our federal minimum wage, is insufficient for anybody to survive off of," Garvin said. He said $10.10 is "a good starting point."

"Am I under any illusion that a family can live off of $10.10 per hour? No, but I also think that's a better place to be than $7.25, which is where's that now."

Garvin also believes $10.10 would be a compromise that avoids having a harmful effect to the total number of jobs within the state.

Is the need for minimum wage exaggerated?

Patrick Warren, associate professor of economics at Clemson, said the conversation about minimum wage may be over-exaggerated because only about 4 percent of South Carolinians are working at or below minimum wage.  

“We talk a lot about it because that’s a policy that’s easy to understand. And we care about those people because they’re close to the poverty line, but it’s not that big of a section.”

Albertson said if she were to get the extra $1.35 raise to minimum wage, that $216 a month would mean she could afford housing, but a raise to the living wage would make her life much easier.

"In the '90s, one single person probably could live off of $7.25, but nowadays that's just not possible," she said. "Everything has inflated, so if you look at that, then you look at the minimum wage, why hasn't that increased? If everything else is increasing, why can't they increase something that causes a whole lot more people to become self-sufficient?"

Albertson lives with her mother-in-law and can't afford to pay the $100 she's supposed to each month. Her husband has a developmental disorder and is unemployed.

"I'm the type of person that doesn't really want to get help from other places, like having to apply for food stamps or TANF and things like that," she said. "Like now, I'm in the process of applying for Section 8 because I can't pay for my own housing. I live with my mother-in-law, but that's not going to be forever. I'm not even paying her anymore, so she's losing money, which makes it more stressful in the house for everyone."

A year from now, when her contract position is over, she hopes to have a full-time role helping at-risk people get into permanent housing, working toward her goal of being the director of a transitional housing program, but she's focused on self-sufficiency.

"I would like to be a role model for my daughter. I wouldn't want her to be in the same situation as me when she gets older."

Related:For some in South Carolina, the living wage could be 3 times the minimum wage