Low-Wage America: Marshall Cox

By Noah Adams

Published June 10, 2003 at 6:00 PM HST

Marshall Cox is a server at the original Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Corbin, Ky. -- and a sharp pool player.

Most evenings, 24-year-old Marshall Cox is a pool shark with ambitions to earn a two-year degree and pursue a career in drafting.

But by day, Cox works in the original Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Corbin, Ky., where KFC founder Harland Sanders began building his fast food empire. NPR's Noah Adams recently spent a day with Cox and followed his routine.

He earns $6.25 an hour, doesn't own a car and still lives with his mother, where he and his brother help out with the household expenses. He's also a pretty sharp pool player.

Noah Adams

Noah Adams, long-time co-host of NPR's All Things Considered, brings more than three decades of radio experience to his current job as a contributing correspondent for NPR's National Desk., focusing on the low-wage workforce, farm issues, and the Katrina aftermath. Now based in Ohio, he travels extensively for his reporting assignments, a position he's held since 2003.

See stories by Noah Adams