The New Orleans Industry can afford to pay its workers a living wage.
The New
Orleans hotel rooms are the fifth most expensive in the nation, the
owners pay thier workers some of the absolute lowest wages in the country.
Hotel markets on par with New Orleans in terms of occupancy, room rates,
and overall profitablity include such cities as New York, Boston, San
Fransisco and Washington D.C.
Housekeeper
wage rates in these cities average $9.21 per hour, compared with New
Orleans' $5.48. And hotel workers in these other cities also have medical
and dental insurance, paid holidays, vacation and sick leave and pensions.
Forty-two percent of new Orleans hospitality workers, however, don't
haveany kind of health insurance offered at their work. Even when companies
do offer insurance, it is oftn too expensive for workers to afford.
Our community suffers from this glaring divide
 While
our business community prospers, New Orleans remains a city divided.
Housing developments like Iberville and St. Thomas fall deeper and deeper
into a state of disrepair, all within a mile of the bustling Central
Business district. Shuttered homes are found just blocks outside the
romantic French Quarter.
New Orleans
is one of the poorest cities in the nation, with a third of the population
living in poverty. Two-thirds of the poor live in abject poverty, making
less than $8,000 per year.
Far from
helping to make New Orleans a shining star with high living standards
for all, the hospitality indstry's low wages add injury to insult. As
limited government resources are spent to help raise basic living standards
for hotel workers in New Orleans, precious resources are diverted from
education, public safety, health care and other community programs.
For example,
in New Orleans, a family of four is eligible to recieve food stamp benefits
if its total annual income is less than $20,868. At that level, families
dependent onhotel worker easily qualify, despite gainful employment
in the private-sector hospitality industry. Many hotel workers also
must rely on government help for housing, health care at public clinics
and cash assistance.
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