For some individuals, even if they do have a job that pays what is deemed a “livable wage,” other factors can contribute to them falling below the poverty line.
Bertha Lara, a 52 year-old Tyson factory employee from El Salvador, has considered herself to be in poverty since she arrived in the United States and started working in 1999.
Despite still making $11.50 an hour, Lara, who now lives in Springdale, has struggled to support her family because of injuries on the job that keep her from working for months at a time.
“People have to borrow money to pay for their way here, so when you get here you arrive in debt,” she said. “Then you’re not paid enough, or not given a raise. I have been working their since 1999 and have never received a raise.”
Lara damaged the tendon in her left thumb cutting chicken, and the doctors took the tendon in her left ring finger out to fix her thumb, but now her left ring finger is having problems, she said.
This injury took Lara out of the workforce for eight months.
Listen below to hear Lara discuss what happened to her hands at the Tyson plant.
In order for Lara to continue working, she has to go see a specialist in Fayetteville to fix her hand, but she still hasn’t paid off her last doctor bills and can’t afford the new treatment.
“I’m concerned because I already have a left hand I can’t work with, so if I get surgery and mess up my right hand, I won’t be able to work,” she said. “After my first surgery they already wanted me to quit on my own, if I have to have another one they’ll find even more ways to pay me less.”
Lara is a member of the Northwest Arkansas Workers Justice Center, run by Magaly Licolli.
“We are just perpetrating this cycle of poverty, and if they can’t work they can’t contribute to the economy,” she said.
“Injuries cost money for the corporations. Its not just one case, its a repetition. Once they are fired, they don’t have any benefits and are out of the work force, entering this cycle of poverty,” Licollli said.
Despite their wage, Lara said that she has to live pay check to paycheck, if she is lucky.
Both Lara and her husband are still working to support their kids, who they hope will have a better future than themselves.
“Our children have seen all that we have been through and say to themselves, ‘We will make sure we get a good education so you don’t have to worry about us,'” she said.
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