Each morning, Ke Flemons gets her two girls, Kay Kay and Tootie, ready for the day, and then takes a bus across town for her $8.50 per hour shift at Burger King. Even though she splits bills and rent with her sister and her mother, Flemons cannot afford to keep all the utilities on.
If their power does get cut off, Flemons sometimes charges her phone on an extension cable from the house next door. Even though she works 32 hours a week, she and her daughters have been evicted, and, at times, homeless.
On a hot summer day, April Shabazz’s daughter bends down to fix a short in her AC unit’s power cable. Shabazz lives with her two kids and new granddaughter. At the time this photo was taken, she was a home healthcare worker as well as a Grubhub delivery driver.
Working more than 70 hours per week, Shabazz brought home approximately $2,300 during the month of July 2017.
Nathan Wash, with his broken reading glasses, gets ready for his 5 AM shift. Between his two jobs—at McDonald’s and as a janitor—he works around 60 hours each week.
Wash’s workday always starts at 5 AM, and his second shift ends at 10 PM. (He has a two- to three-hour break in between.) In his spare time, he studies previous labor movements in his apartment.
Douds and her husband, Mike Washington, rent a bedroom in a house with three other roommates.
The bedroom is all Douds and her husband can afford on her paycheck, as Washington has a heart condition that keeps him out of work and requires expensive medications.
