For Phyllis Tydings of Charlotte, N.C., earning an extra few dollars an hour could mean the difference between living off credit cards and having financial freedom.
Tydings, a Concord Home Depot cashier, makes $8.76 an hour - higher than the $5.15 minimum wage. But she still struggles to pay the bills. She makes about $800 a month; her husband, Shelby, a landscaper, makes about $1,300.
Together, their income falls well below the $3,950-per-month "living wage" that some advocates say the Tydings family would need to meet basic expenses in the Charlotte area.
"Wages need to be raised. ... I've lived here 10 years, and I'm making less now than I did 10 years ago," said Tydings, a mother of two who recently discontinued her health insurance coverage because she couldn't afford the $220 monthly premium.
"We keep bringing all these retail jobs here, and people can't make a living."
Tydings, 40, is part of a growing group of retail workers who are finding that their wages aren't keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living.
Over the years, advocates for the working poor have lobbied to force cities to pay government workers a "living wage" - a wage that's enough to support a family's basic needs.
The movement caught fire nationally in the early 1990s when grassroots labor organizations persuaded cities such as Baltimore, New York and Milwaukee to require companies receiving municipal contracts to pay workers more than poverty-level wages.
Today, more than 120 cities across the country have living-wage ordinances.
Cities such as Chicago, which already pay a living wage to city workers, are pushing for laws to force stores, such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Lowe's to follow suit.
Broadening the movement beyond the public sector could have far-reaching implications: Retail is one of the largest, fastest-growing industries in the country. The National Research Bureau ranked the Myrtle Beach area as the most developed retail market in the country in 2005, at 43.22 square feet of shopping center space per person.
Groups like the N.C. Justice Center argue that increasing wages are the best way to improve the quality of life for workers, and say it would stop the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.
About 35 percent of employees in the Carolinas earn less than the group's proposed living wage, according to a Charlotte Observer analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
"These jobs pay the lowest wages, but they're the ones that are growing the fastest," said John Quinterno, a research associate for the Raleigh-based N.C. Budget and Tax Center.
"People are working a lot of hours and doing all the things we say in America that they should do to get ahead, but they aren't moving up the ladder of opportunity."
Companies including Wal-Mart and Lowe's are fighting a recently-passed ordinance in Chicago that will force them to pay a $10 per hour living wage there by 2010. Opponents say the laws hurt workers by forcing retailers to cut jobs or locate elsewhere - often in areas less in need of the low-skill jobs.
Roy Cordato, vice president of research for the John Locke Foundation, a conservative Raleigh-based think tank, said living-wage laws are destructive to the work force.
"If you're talking about $16 an hour, that would be unbelievable," Cordato said. "It would price people out of the market. They'll simply be told you can't be hired - and a zero wage is not a living wage."
But some companies say they thrive when lower-paid workers earn more.
Family Dollar, a Matthews-based discount retailer, supports increases in the minimum wage because it boosts the amount of disposable income its customers have to spend, spokeswoman Kiley Rawlins said.
Rawlins said that in states that recently increased their minimum wage - Vermont, New York, Florida and New Jersey - the company saw some of its best sales figures in years. Although Family Dollar had to pay its own workers more, the net result was still positive, she said. North Carolina recently passed a $1 minimum wage increase to $6.15 that goes into effect in January.
"It does speak to the fact that a minimum-wage increase does benefit the lower income sector, and that's who we serve," she said. "Over the last two years we've seen price increases for basic necessities like gasoline, and yet these folks haven't seen much of a core living increase."
Rawlins had no comment on the company's stance on a living wage, saying the issue hasn't arisen in any areas where its stores would be affected.
Cordato said efforts to increase the minimum wage or establish a living wage are misguided. He said lawmakers should be asking why worker skills are so low they can't command a living wage in the marketplace.
"If we're not giving our high school graduates a decent education, we need to look at how we are failing people," he said.
Tydings, the Home Depot clerk, tries to get by however she can. She said her family's thin budget doesn't leave room for movies, vacations or after-school soccer or dance lessons for her two daughters, ages 9 and 5.
Clothing is bought on clearance or used. Medical and car emergencies get put on credit cards. She and her husband are now more than $10,000 in debt.
Tydings says she believes her best hope for healthier finances is to to go back to school for retraining. She has two years of education in computer technology. But she says her skills are out of date now, and she'd have to figure out how to pay the tuition.
Education isn't always a guarantee.
Newton resident Dennis DeBalso, 49, has a bachelor's degree in accounting, but he's been unable to find a job in his field. He's working at a store for $7.50 an hour.
DeBalso is single with no children, but he says his salary is so low he still finds he has to rely on food stamps and a local food bank.
He doesn't think his employer should have to shoulder more of the burden, though.
"The problem with most retailers is if you have the living wage, they'll cut people," DeBalso said. "I don't spend time criticizing the retail stores because they're in it for the buck. I just say, 'I'll take as many hours as you can give me.'