Ana Julia Fuentes has worked as a jan­i­tor at Union Sta­tion for 23 years and makes $8.75 an hour. Wil­fredo Reyes Lopez is a recent wid­ower with three chil­dren liv­ing together in a sin­gle bed­room. He’s a cook in the Rea­gan build­ing mak­ing $6.50 an hour. Ana Sal­vador has worked at McDonald’s at the Air and Space Museum for 11 years. She’s a sin­gle mother with four kids get­ting SNAP ben­e­fits and Med­ic­aid. Jonathan Ross is a sin­gle father mak­ing $9.71 an hour at a restau­rant in the Smith­son­ian Institute’s Amer­i­can His­tory Museum. He’s had three raises in four years, none more than $.15.

Low-wage work­ers drive offi­cials to meet­ings, serve them lunch in fed­eral cafe­te­rias, care for their chil­dren at gov­ern­ment day care cen­ters, sew and laun­der the uni­forms of the sol­diers who serve our nation, clean their offices, guard the build­ing in which they work, and pick up their garbage and recy­cling. These work­ers also serve the mil­lions of peo­ple who visit the nation’s capi­tol; they work in the food courts at Union Sta­tion and the Ronald Rea­gan Build­ing, greet vis­i­tors at the muse­ums of the Smith­son­ian, sell mem­o­ra­bilia at gift shops, as well as lead sight­see­ing tours and recre­ational activ­i­ties in our National Parks.

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