Minimum Wage

(album: Ojo De Culebra (Shake Away) - 2008)

Traveled seven hundred miles
Crossed the border to the States
With a plastic bottle running
Cross the desert in a shake

Come to English only country
Hiding from the minutemen
Come to make this place my home
Run a long, long way from then

Story of a lifetime
For the minimum wage

Well, they chased me through the desert
Then the agents strapped me down
Then they ask me why in Spanish
Why you keep on coming back?

When I left my dad in Jersey
And my sister in Des Moines
They've been working in this country
Picking lettuce, washing floors

Story of a lifetime
For the minimum wage

Well, they raised me to eight dollars
'Cause I washed the dishes fast
Well, the boss, he got me working
On the porch and in the back

Then I wash the dish and rinse it
Then I go home late and sleep
Well, I need to be awake now
'Cause I walk out in my sleep

When I see that black van coming
Then I know I'm sure to run
Goddamn them agents caught me
Cuffed me on the spot

For the minimum wage

No one forced the boss to hire me
But it's nearly been fifteen
When I left my baby crying
With a promise in my skin

On the outskirts of L.A.
I recite a native poem
Million hands, ten thousand years
It's the season for the crop

It's my people doing the picking
In the valley of the dolls
It's a decent job to work at
Any day I'll take this job

Ethiopian, Colombian, Pakistani, Cantonese
Every man that I run into
All the kitchens on the strip
And they're plugging in them hours
Smiling in their dreams

They're a long, long way from home now
But they looking to be free
California, Alabama and Missouri, Oregon
They been working like their fathers were
A long, long time ago

For the minimum wage
For the minimum wage
For the minimum wage
For, for, for, for the minimum wage

It's a bumpy road to ride in
But I'll take it anytime
It's a bumpy road to take
But I'll take it day

It's a bumpy road to take
But I'll take it anytime
For the minimum wage