STEVE LEWIS/Durango Herald As the manager at Burger King, Flor
Rodriguez has climbed to the topmost rung she can reach, but the
single mother of two still can’t afford to support her children.
She works up to 60 hours per week for an annual salary of
$32,000, but her bills outpace her wages month after month. So
now she’s considering getting a second job at Denny’s.
Rodriguez, who never earned a high school diploma, knows that
more education is the key to a better job but has almost no time
or money to put toward GED classes. Low-wage workers – defined
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as those who
make $11 an hour or less – form the backbone of Durango’s
tourism industry. Yet for many of these workers, their efforts
reap neither the savings for the future nor the resources to
take the next step toward a better life. The concept of a low-
wage job becoming a stepping stone to a better career is more
myth than reality. This low-wage dilemma doesn’t affect everyone
equally. National statistics