Kimberly Rush worked 23 years in the food industry. She waited tables in restaurants and prepped food in a supermarket deli. Then one day she decided she was tired of standing on her feet all day, working weekends and holidays, and living without paid vacations and other benefits.
Melissa Semper was in a similar boat, working as a Lyft driver. She also was raising two boys as a single mother and domestic abuse survivor.
Rush and Semper, both women of color, recently left those days behind. Instead of low-paid, dead-end work, they have managed to land steady, higher-paying jobs with regular hours, benefits and opportunities to move up in the technology and semiconductor industries, pursuing careers not traditionally done by women.
Rush, 48, of Phoenix, works at PacSci EMC, a company with a plant in Chandler that produces parts used in the aerospace and defense sector. After starting off as an assembler, she’s moved up to inspector, earning more than $22 an hour.
Semper, 42, of Tempe, is in a five-year apprentice program training to become a journeyman pipefitter and welder in the semiconductor industry through U.A. Local 469, a trade union. She started at $21.90 an hour. After a raise, she now earns $23.74 an hour, potentially earning $60 an hour when she becomes a journeyman.