“I was a slave”

The gap between the minimum wage, ÂŁ6.41, and the living wage (ÂŁ8.80 in London and ÂŁ7.65 elsewhere), may seem small.
But for the lowest paid and hardest working among us, it’s the difference between living and barely surviving.

Gonzalo Redondo, a Spanish migrant worker, spent two years working at an Edinburgh hotel. He was paid £6.18 an hour—the national minimum wage at the time—to clean 32 rooms a day.

“If you didn’t finish cleaning all the rooms, you couldn’t go home,” Redondo explains. “Do you know what it’s like cleaning that many rooms? It’s impossible. It’s a constant marathon. I was a slave.

“Some rooms are check outs and some rooms are stay overs. Check outs take forever, since you have to clean everything really well. Sometimes, you enter a room, and there’s vomit everywhere.”

Redondo struggled to get by on his wages. “You pay your bills, you buy food for the month and you’re left with maybe £40,” he said. “If you have an emergency expense, you’re screwed.”

Redondo bitterly recalls management’s condescending treatment of its workers.

“They try to make you feel good about your job in silly ways. For example, every month, we’d have a meeting, and the management would give a bottle of champagne to the ‘housekeeper of the month.’ What good is a bottle of champagne when I hardly have enough money to eat? They called it an award but it felt like a slap in the face.”

What about his personal life? Redondo laughs. “I had no personal life. My entire life was the hotel. You make friends in the hotel, and they’re your only friends. When I was a spa attendant, some days I would finish at 11 at night, and I’d have to return at five in the morning.

“In my 34 years of existence, it’s the worst job I’ve had in my life. I’ve never been under so much constant stress. To be honest, it’s probably the reason my relationship ended. I just didn’t have the time. I was always, always working.”
Redondo sighs.  “We were supposed to get married and have children.”

Now, Redondo lives in London and gets paid above the London Living Wage as a gardener.

“It’s made an incredible difference,” he says. “Obviously I still can’t afford many things, but I’m happy. I’m finally living a life I’m proud of.”