Debi Brumit has never gotten ahead. An hourly employee renting a house in Ferguson, Missouri, Brumit is a poster child for the American workforce. A missed paycheck means coming up short on rent. An unexpected medical bill, borrowing from friends or the bank. Household finances are no more than a lifelong shuffle between bills, debt, and due payments; an infinite loop of making ends just barely meet. With no meaningful retirement fund and no savings, there’s no way forward but to keep treading.
Brumit, 52, works the night shift at Potter Global Technologies—a fire safety manufacturer about 20 minutes from her home. She’s arranged her schedule so she can fit in a full-time job while spending whatever daylight hours she has with her grandchildren—Jax, age 7, and Zander, age 6—for whom she provides full-time care. Their mother, Brumit’s youngest daughter, died of an overdose three years ago.
Brumit has lived most of her life in Missouri. She dropped out of high school at 16 and gave birth to twins–a boy and a girl–a few years later. In 2021, her world turned upside down when her youngest daughter passed away at age 25 after three years of battling a substance addiction. She left two sons, of whom Brumit is now the legal guardian. Brumit has spent the majority of her work life as a bartender at various downtown St. Louis bars. She’d also had stints working at a gas station, a food mart, and briefly with her sister at a manufacturing plant.