 "Photo: McKenzi Taylor")
Cindy Gehm is stuck.
Unable to live off her meager income but constrained by a pre-determined state salary, the 50-year-old USD landscaper is caught in a situation that leaves no window of hope.
Spurred by other Career Service Employees who feel her frustration and the same pocket pinch, Gehm has inadvertently become the voice of USD's lowest-paid workers.
"I'm seeing a lot of frustration, hearing a lot of frustration and feeling a lot of frustration," she said.
One of the workers Gehm spoke on behalf of was Vern Forbes, 52, a custodian in Brookman and Julian Hall who makes $8.71 an hour. Forbes was forced to live in his van for a month and half across the street from Pamida because he could not afford to pay his car and apartment rent.
Forbes has since found temporary shelter with another CSE worker in Newcastle.
Forbes moved to Vermillion from Omaha to make a new life for himself after his wife passed away. Forbes worked at a similiar job in Omaha earning $16 an hour before the company folded. Though he came to Vermillion because he would be closer to family and thought he could have a better life, his low wages at USD have changed his mind.
"Custodians are the lowest-paid people and probably do the most work," he said. "The people that really do the work don't make any money."
Gehm, a single mother of four, makes $21,275. Her four-year degree in social work from Valparaiso University in Indiana does her little good, she said. After 12 years of working for USD, her wage is barely enough to buy groceries and pay the bills.
Forbes said there is no way to make it on his salary.
"That's why everyone works there and another part-time job," he said.
Gehm loves her job, but said after a full day of physical labor she is too exhausted to work another job. Working as a landscaper makes her happy, but makes day-to-day living tough.
Many of her co-workers face the same plight, she said, and some take a second job to alleviate the financial burden.
Gehm called upon state legislators to increase the salary of Career Service Employees at the South Dakota Board of Regents meeting in Vermillion Sept. 13.
"Since then, I can't even walk through campus without being stopped by people thanking me. It's a big issue, I'm finding out," she said.
The BOR does not set the salaries for Career Service Employees. Those employees are funded by the state and that number is set within the budget, state senator Ben "BJ" Nesselhuf said.
Lisa Rahn, library associate at I.D. Weeks Library, said it's up to senators like Nesselhuf to take notice of the situation.
There is hesitancy on the part of the appropriations committee to give state employees more than a three percent increase, Nesselhuf said.
"It's rather shameful that we can't," he said.
At the meeting, Regent chairman Harvey Jewett said the Board of Regents was not the source of Gehm's solution.
It's the Legislature that really needs to tackle the issue, Nesselhuf said.
Gehm said even though she gets a cost of living raise and a $100 longevity bonus each year, it doesn't mean much when she still can't pay her bills.
"I go backward every month," she said. "That's true with everyone around me if they're the only one making a wage in their family."
Bill Richardson, chairman of the Political Science department, said the salaries of the Career Service Employees are "shocking." The purpose of having a salary range is to reward the employees for quality work, he said.
"Give them a plaque, give them a handshake ... But that doesn't put food on their table," he said.
Rahn said as a single woman with no kids, her salary of $26,490 allows her to live comfortably. But if she had kids or a husband to support, there's no way she'd be able to pay her bills.
"There's definitely a low morale (among Career Service Employees)," Rahn said. "When people have to struggle to pay their bills and to keep their kids in clothes, of course there is going to be low morale."
Forbes said he feels custodians are looked down upon at USD.
"They look at custodians like they're not educated, like they're stupid," he said.
Forbes said if it wasn't for his friend, he would still be homeless. There is no way to pay bills and still put food on the table with what he gets paid, he said.
Gehm has two checking accounts that utilize ongoing loans so she can go into a negative balance without overdrawing. When Gehm gets her tax refund, she supplements both checking accounts and starts all over again.
"If a person works a 40-hour devoted week, they should be able to, at the very least, pay bills and groceries," she said.
No matter how hard she works, Gehm is "stuck." For the past four years, Gehm has asked for a raise and each year has been denied. She is still considered part of the crew after 12 years of working, although she is essentially performing the role of crew leader, she said.
Each salary has a starting point and a high point, Richardson said, but it seems impossible for the employees to reach the high point.
Instead, they are stuck at "mid-point" with little hope for a raise without reclasssifying their position.
Nesselhuf empathizes with the career service employees, and said the problem goes further than just state and university employees, but rather the entire state.
"(The issue of) low wages is something we've been fighting in South Dakota for a very long time," he said. "The mentality in Pierre is ... get as much as you can for as little as you can. That's not the way to do it."
Gehm suggested USD administrators take a 5 percent pay cut for one year, which could then be put into the CSE payroll.
"I know there's very little chance that will happen," she said. " ... (But) all these salaries that are way up there, it won't really hurt those people."
Gehm's idea isn't feasible, Richardson said. Unless everyone takes a permanent 5 percent pay cut, the money would run out long before the solution was reached and the employees would still be scraping for money.
"We as a university need to be going to bat with the Legislature for these people to deal with the salary cap issue and finding an additional, permanent pot (of money)," he said.
Gehm also proposed instituting an income tax, but acknowledged it would be an unpopular tactic in South Dakota.
Though she doesn't have all the answers, Gehm has plenty of questions.
"You start asking, 'Why am I putting all of this energy into the job?' You start saying, 'This isn't right.' You see yourself pushing yourself, doing everything they want you to do, yet you get no reward, no incentives."
Reach reporter Michelle Rydell at Michelle.Rydell@usd.edu.
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