Yaveth Gomez • Silicon Valley De-Bug
San Jose and the rest of California increased the minimum wage. Author Yaveth Gomez shares a personal insight from working these jobs that shows why it’s not only the money that has to improve, it’s the treatment of minimum wage workers as well.
The minimum wage increase in San Jose paved the way to have Governor Brown approve a bill to increase the minimum wage for all of California. Great news for many people like myself. I work as a dishwasher in Mountain View and I live in Tracy, California. I commute an average of 120 miles per work day. I was doing that for two weeks straight at one time. Now, I have a job at a non-profit which is also in the bay area, so I still have to do the daily commute. Even though it’s not close to home, at least its a job closer to my moralistic goals. With my commute to and from work, I have a limited time to relax and just unwind to reflect on what I really want to do or work on it.
I first started working as a dishwasher in April of 2013. I got the job because my dad was worried that I could not find work. I was living off unemployment checks, trying to find a job in my field. I graduated in 2009 from UC Berkeley as a Film major and I wanted a job that was film related or at least something where I feel like I am making a difference in society. Before, I was working for banks – another career that I got due to family helping me out and having connections – but it just was not for me. Then after the bank jobs, I briefly held employment as a salesman for a cell phone company and that didn’t work out either because I was not meeting their numbers.
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