Because she is supporting a family, Brown's attempt to make do on her salary is most poignant. An unassuming, thin woman who completed the 11th grade, Brown has worked a variety of jobs around Bremerton, where she lives, including cashier at a stationery store. Her husband, who was laid off a year and a half ago from a job as a mechanic, has had a hard time finding a new job because his toolbox was stolen. He stays at home with their granddaughter, whose mother is unable to care for her. She pays rent in three installments over each month.
Extras are more of a problem.
Today she brought soup from home that she heated in a microwave. A single parent since she was 20, Vance has sold drugs for most of her adult life and was eventually sentenced to 19 months in jail. I'll probably stay here for six months and then maybe go to be a cashier at someplace like Safeway. This diverse sampling of workers who would be affected by I-688 isn't surprising. Still, though I-688 would help these people to some degree, studies show that minimum wage increases do little to reduce poverty overall, in part because many poor people are unemployed or work intermittently.