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Article: Maximum speed, minimum pay. (retail industry work)(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- September 8, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I leave work with aching arms, and with conflicting feelings: dread that I must return, relief that I haven't been fired. For the first time, perhaps, I cannot perform the work that I was hired to do.
For two years, I have held low-paying jobs that are unrelated to some twenty years of newspaper work or to the master's degree in journalism I received thirty years ago. The reasons why: I want part-time work compatible with my ten-year-old daughter's school hours; I was out of the work force for fourteen years; I am over fifty; and, probably most important, I am computer illiterate.
Currently, I earn $5.50 an hour working in the distribution center of a large ...