Dorothy White, who picked cotton in Georgia for $3 a day when she was a child, knows what it's like to work long hours for little money.
Still, the owner of Miracle Services Inc. is leery of a new city policy likely to require raises for some of her employees. "Paying more may get me better workers, but if the city is not going to pay us more, then we can't afford it," Mrs. White said.
That policy calls for city contractors to boost the pay of janitors, school cafeteria employees and other service workers to $7.70 an hour over four years. That's significantly higher than the federally mandated minimum wage of $4.25 an hour.
About 50 of Miracle Services' 1,000 employees will be affected by the policy. And the company will lose future city contracts if it cannot absorb the employees' pay increases into its costs, Mrs. White fears.
"The city doesn't want to pay us any more money," she said. "When bids are so low, how can we raise employee pay when we are not making anything?"
Baltimore's policy, approved by the City Council Thursday night, applies only to employees of companies that have contracts to ** work at schools or other municipal facilities.
Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke had threatened to veto the council measure because it would cost Baltimore as much as $3 million if companies passed on increased labor costs to the city in the form of higher bids. But Wednesday, the mayor agreed to a compromise permitting the city Board of Estimates -- which he and his appointees dominate -- to set wage levels.
That compromise eliminated a specific minimum wage -- $6.10 an hour -- from the council legislation. Instead, the board agreed to adopt a resolution setting the minimum wage at $6.10 for contracts signed after mid-1995 and to consider raising the wage annually -- as long as city finances are not hurt.
Service companies will have to post wage schedules at job sites and provide payroll records to the Board of Estimates to show they are complying with the minimum wage requirement. Those LTC not in compliance could be fined and lose contracts with the city.
Two other service company operators did not share Mrs. White's fears.
"I think it's a good bill," said David Butler, president of Patriarch Inc. "The city is probably the last one to do this anyway. Most private companies and the federal government are already requiring us to pay workers more than $6.10 an hour."
Patriarch, which in September lost a bid to provide custodians at several city schools, formerly had about 30 of its 130 employees working at city job sites.
"This is long overdue," added Richard McGee, president of Abacus Inc. "This will be great for employees and for us. We already pay our employees more than the federal minimum wage, but not $6.10. This should put us all on a level playing field."
Abacus, which has 1,100 of its 2,700 employees in Baltimore, has about 50 working at municipal sites.
Mrs. White agreed that offering a higher wages should improve the caliber of job applicants at her company.
She said she may pay less than $6.10 an hour now, but always pays more than the federal minimum wage. "I know people can't make a living on that," she said.
Gary Bernstein, a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, said it was a "great idea" for Baltimore to impose a minimum wage for service workers. But he said it was not the answer to declining living standards.
"It's laying another big responsibility on City Hall that traditionally has been the responsibility of federal government," Mr. Bernstein said.
Still, officials at Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development BUILD), the group leading the fight for higher wages, are pleased with this week's compromise on the minimum wage measure.
For more than a year, BUILD has been conducting a campaign to get better pay for service workers in both the public and private sector, particularly at Inner Harbor hotels and restaurants.
But the church-affiliated organization has had little success lobbying businesses.
"When we began our campaign we asked what course the city could take," said BUILD co-chairman Charlotte Humphrey.
"We realize this is going to be a struggle, but we believe the city has to take the first step. If you work, you should be able to sustain your family."