Bay Area Worker Stories

Guadalupe Herrera

Her oldest son said he wants to quit school so her can get a job to help the family with money so his mom won't have to work so hard, but Guadalupe said, "No! Don't stop school! Learn more and more so you don't have to do the work that I do. I don't want you to be a janitor, I want more for you."

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Rafael Ramos

While every Stanford employee starts off getting paid $11.55 an hour, sub-contracted employees like Rafael, who works for ABM, start at $8.04 an hour because Stanford's living wage policy does not apply to sub-contractors.

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Veronica Cervantes

Veronica works at night, which means she gets home just in time to help her three children get ready for school. She gets about five hours of sleep a day and often goes to work tired. "It's hard, but I don't have a choice. I have to work at night and I just do what I can to feed my family."

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Eloisa Gonzalez

"More than anything, I am fighting for my children's future. My coworkers and I are just standing up for our children to have a successful life."

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Eulogia Figueroa

"The 10 cent raise the company is offering us won't cover our increasing household costs. My husband and I will have to take second or even third jobs so we don't have to move back to the projects. I just can't put my kids in harms way."

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Maria Lopez

Janitor Maria Lopez starts each day praying for a miracle. After nine years of cleaning the offices of Silicon Valley tech company Cisco Systems she is paid just $11.04 an hour--not nearly enough to sufficiently care for her four young children.

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