Frenso, Texas (APP) – When she sleeps, Tiana Yeldel has a moment, and that does not happen.
The 44 -year -old single mother in three weeks of 80 hours to supply your children aged 8, 14 and 18. At night, she cleanses trains for Houston’s metro system, where she earns about $ 17 per hour.
When she pulls both shifts, Aldeel just sleeps for two to three hours before her children get up and get ready for school. Then she does it again.
Yeldel is one of the millions of fast food workers in the United States to fall across the United States. About Two -thirds According to the US Bureau of Labor statistics, they are women, and many are helping their family at the federal government’s destination an hour. Fast food workers are non -proportional Spanish, which is 24.6 % of the industry’s workforce compared to 18.8 % of the overall manpower. And more than half of us are fast food workers 20 or older, “said Cassy Gabbeslasi, a lawyer for the National Employment Law Project. Do for money. “
The three -year -old Single Mom, Tiana Yeldel, is ready to deliver pizza hit on Thursday, November 14, 2024, on November 14, 2024, in Texas, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
President Donald Trump, who Managed fry station in McDonald’s Last year in Pennsylvania, while on the path to the campaign, acknowledged that the minimum wage is “very low” and it will consider increasing it, but doing so will be “complicated”.
Meanwhile, the growing number of states in recent years has called for increasing its minimum wage during record high inflation. In Alaska, voters approved the Belt Initiative in November, which will increase the minimum wage of the state from $ 11.73 per hour to one hour by 2027. Missouri’s voters have similarly approved the minimum wage hike, which is $ 12.30 an hour by 2026. And California. In April – the highest costs of living in the country Wages raised Especially for fast food workers, an hour from $ 16 to $ 20 an hour.
According to the December 2024 National Employment Law Project, by the end of this year, 23 states and 65 cities and counties will increase their minimum wage floor. Report It combined through legislation across the country.
But not Texas, where Yeldel and his family live. It is One of the 20 states .2 7.25 federal minimum wage floor and this rate has not increased since 2009. Democratic lawmakers in Texas have repeatedly proposed legislation to increase the minimum wage in the state. Pre -timely rulesTexas and many other states, prevent cities and counties from adopting the minimum wage laws, and offers another obstacle.
According to the MIT residential wages calculator, today, a living wage is an hour for an adult raising three children in the Houston Metro area. On the other hand, it is not possible to get a job of fast food, which is why he has to work another job.
Still wearing his websor and brown color “No pizza” hut shirt “, she slips on the sideway after the recent work shift, and puts four folding chairs on the folding table where the family eats. The house is clean. Before Tones replaced the sweat and a yellow T -shirt, children’s food scoops on the plates, and then the young men disappear in their bedrooms. Its mine craft pajamas wore the youngest age playing with her on the sofa with her on a bright red console.
Tiana Yeldel, left, his son House, 8, right, spends his home, Thursday, November 14, 2024, in Missouri City, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
“I don’t want to work on two jobs – I’m really tired. But I have to do, because jobs don’t pay enough,” said Yelldeel. “I won’t provide the roof on my children’s head … they come first, I come in second.”
The Associated Press reached Pizza Hut to comment on wages for fast food workers, as well as its core company, YM brands but did not listen to.
One of the many problems facing fast food workers is only one wage. Unexpected hours, limited access to sick leave, and challenging customer interaction all form their own experiences, co -director and co -founder of the shift project, Daniel Schneider, Joint Harvard and the University of California, San Francisco Project. Do research. Service sector work.
David Medland, senior fellow Labor scholar of the Center for American Progress, added that theft of wages and other laws are also common.
“The fast food industry is notorious for low salaries and poor work conditions,” said Madlandland. It is almost generally seen in general, which has little care. “
Aldeel’s pizza hit deliverys sometimes at 11pm to keep a knife in his pocket as well as a flashlight and keep it safe. Take
Despite the challenges, Yeldel holds a positive approach to his job, which he started as a delivery driver a year and a half ago, and since then he has been in his Frensono, Texas Store “too much Something has learned to do, including making pizza, preparation. Ingredients, and running register.
“Pizza hit is a really easy task and when you make it difficult, it’s hard,” he said. “And I’m a faster learning, so it doesn’t bother me. The only time it is worrying when we are slow and they say, ‘Oh, we had to cut your times.’
In contrast to California, Texas, which now has the minimum wage of any state’s most fast food, as lawmakers have approved at least 20 hours of wages for these workers.
Angelica Harnands, 51, who has worked in various restaurants of McDonald’s for 20 years and now works for the location of Monterey Park in Los Angeles County, said the addition paid his fare and bill on time. To avoid late fees and “help buy a little more.” At the grocery store. He said, his family also had the opportunity to go out to eat weekend, “which I I could never have done before, so it is a great success that the fast food workers have been able to win. “
But Harnands says the recent $ 200 fare increase has swallowed up. “We need to save money every two weeks without being tired and worth buying clothes or using credit,” he said.
Now, Harnand is a member of the Fast Food Workers Union in California, and has been established by the Fast Food Council of the state by the Council Member. California’s new law And to improve working conditions.
Tiana Yeldel, who is the only 44 -year -old mother of three, works in the kitchen in Pizza Hut on Thursday, November 14, 2024 in Texas Missouri City. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Critic Legally They say that increasing the minimum wage is not the answer, they argue that it has raised prices and reduced job opportunities for young people, and the franchisees in the already high margin industry. Is chicking.
“When you see a very dramatic dramatic in the short -term operating costs in the short term,” said Jute Condy, President and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, “said the President and CEO of the California Restaurant Association. Jute Condy said. He added that the franchises, which are primarily small business owners, have suffered the most.
But in a September report of the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for Research for Labor and Employment described the impact of the new law as “benign” and found that this policy does not negatively affect employment and prices I increase about 3. 3.7 %, or about 15 cents. A $ 4 Hamburger.
For Yeldel, the minimum wage increase in Texas “would be more fair.”
“If other states can change, you can change,” he said.
His fatigue shines: his movements are slow, and his eyelids slip. Between his two jobs, he has no day leave, so his activities with the children have to take place in the days when he works on the same job, not both. But she offers it.
On Friday morning at 7am on a cold day, she walks to the youngest bus stop, then take her daughter to her daughter to perform her senior photos before her pizza hit shift begins Goes
Nava corrects the spelling, not Neva – Tiana Yeldel, right, 18 -year -old pose for a selfie with his daughter Neva as senior photo day, Friday, November 15, 2024, in Missouri City, Texas – (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
In the photography studio, Yieldel and his daughter pose for selfie against a background in which the “25 class of class” reads. Yeldel wores a sleek, royal blue dress that reads “faith” in a white cursed text, his daughter is in a black hat and gown. The hair of both women is arranged in long, beautiful peaks, with heads rotating.
“As a mother, I do what I want to do for my children,” he said.
But for all his hard work, Yeldel says there is no savings in the family. In good months, she says she has about $ 100. Often, he has nothing, which has no vacation, or goes out with children.
“At the end of the day, I have worked in all these hours and I really have nothing for it, but just have to pay some bills,” he said.
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