Economic mobility in Charlotte must include wage hikes for city workers
City leaders have spent years vowing to fix Charlotte’s economic mobility problem.
They’ve funneled millions into affordable housing programs, rolled out a $250 million racial equity initiative that will invest in economic development projects and floated a $13.5 billion transit plan, all with the stated intention of making Charlotte a place where workers — and not just the affluent — can live.
But what they haven’t done is ensure that their own workers can afford to live here themselves.
Members of the Charlotte City Workers Union, a chapter of UE Local 150, gathered at a city council meeting last week to demand family-supporting wages and benefits.
Community organizer Kass Ottley told the council that 75% of city workers earn less than $62,000, which is the amount considered necessary for a single adult with a child in Charlotte.
“So when we talk about upward mobility in this city, and when we talk about corridors of opportunity, and we talk about making this a beautiful place for everyone, we are leaving the majority of our city workers behind,” Ottley said at the meeting.
As the cost of living in Charlotte soars and affordable housing becomes harder to come by, the plight of city workers has become even more untenable. Without a living wage, many city workers have to pick up a second or even third job to make ends meet. Dominic Harris, president of the Charlotte City Workers Union and a Charlotte Water employee, told me that he can’t pay his bills each month unless he gets overtime, which isn’t guaranteed.
“A lot of workers in this city are struggling, and it should not be this way,” Harris said. “City employees should be among those that are living a high, high quality of life because of the service that we have dedicated to the citizens of Charlotte.”
Last year, union organizers won an $18.50 minimum wage for all city workers. But, they say, that still isn’t enough. And it’s not, at least not in Charlotte. According to a 2021 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a person would have to earn an hourly wage of $22.13 in order to afford a modest two-bedroom rental home in the Charlotte area.
The union is also asking the city for a universal sick leave policy. Currently, each department sets its own sick leave policy, with some being more stringent than others. Harris said that some managers have weaponized the policy to fire workers for not coming to work when they’re sick.
Due to North Carolina’s harsh anti-union laws, public employees cannot negotiate collective bargaining agreements with their employer, severely diminishing their voice and ability to demand better wages and working conditions. Workers say it’s hard to even get the city’s ear — oftentimes, council meetings are their only chance to speak to city leaders and air their grievances. Many of them have been hesitant to speak out publicly, fearing retaliation.
Not anymore. There’s power in numbers, Ottley said, and workers will keep showing up until the city does right by them.
“It’s time to pay these workers. It’s time to show them the respect that they deserve. It really is. It’s an election year, and so we’re going to be holding folks accountable,” she told me.
City leaders talk a lot about making Charlotte a place where people want to live. They seek out new ways to bring new residents and businesses to the area in hopes that it will help everyone prosper. But what about the people who already live here and can barely afford to anymore? Charlotte needs to take care of its own, and city workers should be at the top of the list.
“When we turn on the tap and water comes out, when there’s something wrong with the road, when we have trash out and we want someone to pick that up, that doesn’t happen magically,” Ottley said. “There are people that do that. And those people work very hard to keep the city running, and they deserve the right to be able to live and thrive in the city that they work so hard to keep and maintain.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
