The Fight for $15 is a Fight for Our Future

seiuI’ve worked in home care for four years. I take care of my mom. I cook, clean, do things around the house, help her to and from places. My work helps keep her in our home, so we can be together as a family.

I make just $294 a month.

To get paid $15 an hour would mean the world, because then I wouldn’t have to decide between paying my phone bill or buying food.

Home care workers don’t make much and neither do fast food workers. But we’re all just people, working hard and trying to provide for our families. We make lives better. We deserve a living wage.

On September 4, I joined with fellow home care workers here in Detroit to stand with striking fast food workers and demand $15 an hour and a union.

I want to get other home care workers and young people involved in the Home Care Fight for $15. I’m 23 years old and I know we can make our future better if we come together now. People my age — that’s who needs to stand up.

We’re the future. If we don’t stick together to fight for a living wage, , how’s it going to be for our kids?

I think it’s wonderful that SEIU members and nonunion workers are uniting. We’re all in this together.

This blog originally appeared on SEIU.org on September 22, 2014. Reprinted with permission. http://www.seiu.org/blog/.

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Madeline Messa

Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.