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 JANUARY
15, 2006
 / SECTION
6
Kenji Yoshino:
‘Covering’ My Homosexual Self 
Maggie Jones:
Teenage Boys in Hiding (inTheirBedrooms)
What She’ll DoWith Raise:
Pay bills faster,offset highergas prices,buymore schoolsupplies forsons
MaritalStatus:
Singlemom
IsHowMuchYouPayaWorker aMoralIssue?Agrass-rootscause that coulddecide electionsin November.
By Jon Gertner
Name:
ManuelaSoto
Home:
SantaFe,
N
.
M
.
Hourly Wage BeforeLocal ‘‘Living Wage’’Ordinance:
$7.50
HourlyWageNow:
$9.50
Occupation:
Assistanthotelhousekeeper
 
38
What IsaLivingWage?
a)Agrass-roots campaign to increase the pay of workers?b)Apoint of debate among economists?c)Anew moral-values issue for Democrats?Answer: All of the above.
By Jon Gertner
PhotographsbyAlessandra Petlin
Name:Ivan CornejoStatus:Single Occupations:Cashier,librarian, studentOld Hourly Wage:$7New Santa Fe ‘‘Living Wage’’:$9.50What He’ll Do With Raise:Leave one job to devote more time to studies;pay for books and tuition.Name:Renea FeusterStatus:Single Occupations:Restaurant server, cashierOld HourlyWage:$2.13 (before tips)New ‘‘Living Wage’’:$9.50 What She’ll Do With Raise:Pay the rent;not ‘‘fall behind on car payments, credit cardsand gas and electric.’’Name:Kathairein MagdalenaStatus:Divorced motherOccupation:Office assistantOld Hourly Wage:$9.25New ‘‘Living Wage’’:$9.50 What She’ll Do With Raise:Repair car sothat she doesn’t have to ride thebus;pay for health care;take some classes.
 
Name:Ted OwensStatus:Divorced father Occupation:Retail stockclerkOld Hourly Wage:$8.69New ‘‘Living Wage’’:$9.50What He’ll Do With Raise:‘‘This town is too rich for life in retail andpaying bills on time.’’Name:Ramona LovatoStatus:Widow Occupation:JanitorOld Hourly Wage:$7.50 New ‘‘Living Wage’’:$9.50What She’ll Do With Raise:‘‘Get caughtup on everything. I’m behind on my mortgage,I’m behind on everything.’’Name: AshleyMartinezStatus:Single Occupations:Medical billing assistant,studentOld Hourly Wage:$6.50New‘‘Living Wage’’:$8.50What She’ll DoWith Raise:‘‘Pay for mytuition for college and for books.’’
For a few weeks in the summer of 1995, Jen Kern spent her days at a table in the Library of Congress in Washington, por-ing over the fine print of state constitutions from around the country. This was, at the time, a somewhat-eccentric strat-egy to fight poverty in America. Kern was not a high-powered lawyer or politician; she was 25 and held a low-paying, pol-icy-related job at Acorn, the national community organization. Yet to understand why living-wage campaigns matter —where they began, what they meanand why they inspire such passion and hope — it helps to consider what Kern was do-ing years ago in the library, reading obscure legislation from states like Missouri and New Mexico.A few months earlier, she and her colleagues at Acorn witnessed an energetic grass-roots campaign in Baltimore, led bya coalition of church groups and labor unions. Workers in some of Baltimore’s homeless shelters and soup kitchens hadnoticed something new and troubling about many of the visitors coming in for meals and shelter: they happened to have
If It Happened in Baltimore, Maybe It Can Happen Anywhere
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