$10 An Hour Job Equals Poverty & Death

The story about the death of Rodney Todd and his seven children who died of carbon monoxide poisoning after their electric had been cut off by the power company is a powerful statement about poverty and death.

Rodney took custody of his children after spending time in jail.  By all accounts, he was devoted to his children.  To support his children, he had to work.  He took a job  at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in dining services for $10 an hour.

Think about that.

How does a man support his children on $10 an hour?  After taxes, that's not much income even if he was working a 40-hour week and overtime.

$10 an hour.

It's a statement on devaluing our ability to support ourselves.  With $10 an hour, it's hard to support one person let alone eight.  And children are expensive.

So, here was this father who was trying to take care of his kids on an income of $10 an hour.  The power company turned off the electricity and he bought a generator to keep his children warm at night.  As a result, they all died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

My friends, there are walking poor among us.  You may not be aware of it, but people who have no money go into hiding and keep their financial concerns to themselves.  They may be hungry.  They may be without food.  They may be struggling to feed their children.  And they may look exactly like you.  In fact, you might think they're middle class or even wealthy.  They're not.  People are struggling to find work.  And when you have to work to support your children, you will settle on any job even for $10 an hour.

There are so many questions in the tragic case of the Todd family.  How many other jobs had Rodney been rejected from before settling on poverty wages that were probably intended for a kid at the college?  Think about his take home pay after taxes.

Walmart announced that it raised the hourly wage for half a million of their employees to $9 an hour this year and will increase it to $10 an hour in 2016.  That is not good enough.

It's time for companies to reconsider what is fair pay for a job and to think about taking their employees out of a situation of poverty and potential death.

My new hero is Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Payments.  He recently raised ALL of his employees salaries to $70,000 a year.  He says that price point makes people happier.  And happier employees are loyal to their company.

If only Rodney Todd would have been hired by Gravity Payments sooner, his children may still be alive.