Morales gave birth to her son at age 18. She currently earns minimum wage and is capped from receiving benefits. (Fiona Wang)

This story is part of a Neon Tommy series exploring the lives of low-wage workers in South Los Angeles. In his State of the Union address this February, President Obama unveiled a plan for the minimum wage to be raised to $9 an hour from its current level at $7.25.

The issue of minimum wage became one of renewed pivotal importance in the final weeks of the L.A. mayoral election, with candidate Wendy Greuel pledging to support an increase in the wages of hotel workers to $15 an hour. Workers featured in this series earn wages below, at, or slightly above the California minimum wage rate, which currently stands at $8 an hour. These are the workers who would be affected by a new policy.

At 10 p.m. Jazmin Morales handed the beef bowl to her last customer of the day, anxious to get off work and see her 4-year-old son. 

Morales started working as a cashier at Yoshinoya on Jefferson Blvd. five days a week in September of 2012. Most days she works from 3 to 10 p.m., she said, but her hours vary from day to day. As a cashier, her job is not only confined to the processing of transactions and greeting of customers. Morales is also responsible for taking and giving orders, cleaning tables and floors, and sometimes, preparing food back in the kitchen when she is needed. 

“Once I started working, I barely have a chance to take a break from my work. It just keeps me busy,” said Morales.

Every day Morales says she comes to work on time, even often working overtime. Hired as a part-time worker at Yoshinoya, Morales earns $8 an hour, the minimum wage of California. The restaurant keeps her working 39.5 hours a week, only half an hour less than a full-time worker works. By missing the chance to work for half an hour more, Morales cannot have all the benefits that a full time worker has, such as insurance and vacation. 

But Morales said she understood: “It is the business of fast-food chains. And I’m thankful about what I have right now.”

Morales’ boyfriend works as a valet parking attendant at a restaurant in Koreatown earning $9 an hour. Together, she said, they make a total of $2,500 every month. They spend $400 a month on rent, living with her son in one room of a four-bedroom house on Normandie Ave., shared with her boyfriend’s parents, brother and sisters. 

Aside from rent, Morales said they spend $400 on groceries, $240 on gas and $68 on car insurance, and $200 on phone bills every month. But as Morales’ son gets older, she said she was beginning to feel the need to move out and give her son his own room. She and her boyfriend have been saving up since the end of last year, and now with $5,000 in the bank, hope to move to a two-bedroom house next year. 

At the mention of President Obama’s push for an increase in minimum wage, Morales shook her head. “It would make no big difference. You know, as minimum wage increases, everything else is more expensive as well,” said Morales.

As a second-generation immigrant from Mexico, Morales speaks fluent English and Spanish. She said what she regretted the most was not going to college after high school, after making “some bad friends” in high school and running away from her mom for nearly three months. 

Morales gave birth to her son at age 18 newly out of high school. She then stayed home for three years with her son, with her boyfriend as the only source of income. Although she said she rejected the idea of marriage because she didn’t like the idea of making a commitment to anyone, she said they were a happy couple and content together. 

Morales said her job at Yoshinoya was not going to be one that was long-term as she planned to return to school after moving to the new house. Because she loves children, she said she was considering taking education classes at a community college and becoming a kindergarten teacher in the future.   

Every morning, Morales gets up at 6 o’clock and prepares breakfast for her 4-year-old son before driving him to school, the USC School of Early Childhood. “He is such a smart boy,” she said, revealing a picture of him on her phone. “He loves to go to school.”

For more stories from this series, click here.

Reach Staff Reporter Fiona Wang here.