THEIR PAY'S A LOT LOWER, BUT THEY KEEP ON WORKING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992                   TAG: 9201270193
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY ECONOMY                    PAGE: 10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Judy Schwab
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
THEIR PAY'S A LOT LOWER, BUT THEY KEEP ON WORKING
Joseph Hilton, 41, and Danny Hoback, 35, are glad to have jobs, even though they took a collective pay cut of more than $12 an hour to get those jobs.
Hilton was laid off from BCR Property Management and Hoback from Volvo GM. They now work for Pitman Construction, a Roanoke-based company that has a contract with Virginia Tech's physical plant.
Pitman pays them and the physical plant officials tells them what to do. Recently, they've been building a pedestrian bridge across a small creek that feeds into the campus Duck Pond.
Hoback went from $14.32 an hour plus benefits at the end of October, when he was laid off, to $6.50 an hour without benefits as a carpenter's assistant.
He has a wife and two children, ages 8 and 2. Child care for the 2-year-old would use up any money his wife would make if she could find a job.
"It hurts not having benefits, especially with kids," Hoback said. "I went from middle class to lower class." He defined middle class this way: "If I can pay my bills and have a little left over, I'm middle class."
If it weren't for his family he wouldn't be surviving, Hoback said. "What I make doesn't cover the bills." His family helps with groceries and some of the bills. His wife's family gave them money for Christmas so the children would have presents.
Hilton went from $12.50 an hour to $8 an hour as a carpenter.
"It's a job," he said. "It's this or nothing right now."
He has to use his own truck on the job as well. That truck represents his only debt.
"My home's paid for - it [the recession] ain't hurting me too bad, I'm surviving," he said.
Hilton has a 13-year-old son - "he can eat" - and his wife works part time. But they have no benefits and can save very little.
The bottom line, Hilton said, is "you can't quit. There's nothing else."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB