When the sun sets in Las Vegas, Nicole Williams gets to work, serving drinks from behind the bar of a swanky hotel on the city’s famous street.

But life is far from luxurious for Ms. Williams, 45, and other service industry workers who form the quiet backbone of Vegas’ booming economy.

“If you’re shopping for a big family like me, it’s tough out here,” she told the BBC as she shopped for groceries and took the kids to appointments around town.

The mother of seven children, aged between 10 months and 16, said that she was often afraid of being crushed under the weight of the economy.

Ms Williams said she had to cut back on holidays, as well as football and gymnastics lessons for her children, due to sky-high prices for everything from groceries to petrol, forcing her to strain her already tight household budget.

“We couldn’t do the things we wanted to do,” he said. “I want a future for my children.”

He is not alone. In dozens of interviews with Las Vegans working in vital local industries, from construction and casinos to restaurants and bars, low-paid workers from across the political spectrum told the BBC that kitchen table problems, particularly unaffordable housing and expensive childcare, are future problems. he said. Determine how they will vote on November 5th.

These are the voters Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hope to win in hotly contested Nevada, where they are neck and neck in the polls.

To appease low-wage workers, Harris and Trump have put forward starkly different economic visions, including rival anti-poverty policies that could help shape the financial security of millions of families.

But politically speaking, victory in unpredictable Nevada, one of the key states that will determine who will be the next president, will be won by only a small portion of undecided voters there.

Data shows that about a third of voters in the state consider themselves independent; A New York Times/Siena survey of likely voters in August shows a slim majority of independents leaning toward Democrats (39%) over Republicans (43%).

“Nevada is not a blue state,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer of Culinary Union Local 226, referring to the traditional color of the Democratic Party (Republicans are red).

The politically powerful group has endorsed Harris.

“We’re almost in the purple. If the election were to happen right now, we think Trump would win,” he added.

‘Everything was cheaper’

Despite the booming jobs, Nevada’s unemployment rate was the highest in the nation at 5.6% in September. In Las Vegas, home to three-quarters of the population, the figure was even higher at 5.9%.

State Democratic Party Chairwoman Danielle Monroe-Moreno has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with unemployment rising to nearly 30%. He described it as a sign that “when the country got a cold, Nevada got the flu, too.”

But as the U.S. economy rebounds, Trump and Harris have pursued opposing economic policies to ease some of the burdens on low-income workers. Harris has promised to expand many of the Covid-era policies that President Joe Biden pursued when he took office in 2021, including health and housing benefits and the revival of an increased $6,000 child care tax credit.

Trump has floated the idea of ​​renewing the 2017 tax cuts, which expire next year, while imposing sweeping tariffs on foreign imports that he says would reduce poverty and boost economic growth.

“Five dollars is not $5 anymore, and $100 is barely enough to buy you food,” said Fermin Gonzalez, an unemployed, Mexican-born former restaurant worker who lives in Las Vegas.

He fears he will have difficulty finding work again at age 60. “We could make money here. People are not happy.”

Both parties are relying on door-to-door campaign efforts from allied pollsters to persuade like-minded voters.

The Culinary Union, the state’s largest union representing a variety of occupations in the hotels and food service industry, is working with dozens of teams knocking on doors to drum up support for Harris and other Democratic candidates.

On a September afternoon, two members walked for hours in 40C (104F) temperatures through a modest North Las Vegas neighborhood near the edge of town, where the city gives way to desert and craggy hills.

“Things are very difficult. We feel it very much,” said Olga Mexia, a Mexican immigrant and mother of five who works as a cleaner at the Signature hotel on the strip.

“We get paid a lot less for everything. (Four years ago) rent was less, groceries were less.”

“I had to have two jobs at some point to make this work. I’m campaigning for my family. Harris at least has a real plan,” added Ms. Mexia, who ducked under a tree to shelter from the sun while her teammate knocked on a door. door. “This is the kind of thing people want to talk about.”

‘Tip tax’ fight

One economic proposal that both candidates overlap with is eliminating tip taxes; It’s a concept that has found a positive readership among Nevada’s service workers, more than half of whom are Latino.

More broadly, Latinos represent about 30% of the state’s population and 19% of business owners. Given how close the elections will be statewide and nationally, both parties increasingly see mobilizing Latino voters as key to their victory.

Ms. Williams, the bartender who said she “voted 100 percent for Trump,” said she earns $20 an hour but tips make up her main income, making as much as $250 on a good night. But even if she uses coupons, bargains, and budgets for a weekly menu plan, it’s not enough.

Trump was the first to propose the idea at a rally in Las Vegas in June. He highlighted the plan again in August during a stop at a Mexican-Italian fusion restaurant on the city’s west side.

The restaurant is owned by Javier Barajas, a Mexican immigrant who first crossed into the United States illegally in 1978 and found himself in Las Vegas almost by accident after being separated from his traveling companions.

Mr. Barajas, who was once a dishwasher, is now a fixture in the community and owns a string of popular Mexican restaurants that employ a workforce of more than 500 Latinos.

“My waiters make $12, which is the minimum wage. I don’t say that like it’s a lot. It’s hard. They spend $100 every time they go to the gas station,” he told the BBC, switching between English. and was speaking Spanish in a corner of his restaurant.

Mr. Barajas, an outspoken Trump supporter, said he believes ending the tip tax would greatly help his workers with their day-to-day expenses while also having minimal impact on him as a business owner.

“This idea is interesting for people like them,” he said of his workers. “I totally understand why.”

Harris endorsed the policy of no tax on tips at a rally in Las Vegas in August; but in his case, it was paired with raising the federal minimum wage to $15.

While experts warn that lowering tip taxes would do little to benefit the U.S. economy as a whole, the Tax Foundation estimates any change could cost at least $107 billion. Any changes would also need to be approved by Congress.

‘I’m drowning’

For many working-class Las Vegans, inflation and rent pressures are compounded by child care concerns.

Child care is more expensive in Nevada than elsewhere in the US; The average family spends about $26,000 a year, according to a July report from the state’s Office of Workforce Innovation; This is more than a third of the average annual income.

Harris campaigned on promises to cap child care costs at 7 percent of family income and provide a $6,000 child tax credit. While Trump has not offered a specific plan so far, his vice president, Senator J.D. Vance, has proposed increasing the child tax credit to $5,000 from the current $2,000. In August, Vance skipped a vote on a failed Senate bill that would have expanded the child tax credit for low-income families.

Among those feeling the pinch is Dominic Richmond, a 50-year-old single grandmother who cares for four young children with special needs (aged one, four, six and nine) and a mother with dementia who lives nearby.

Ms. Richards lives in a small two-bedroom apartment that costs $1,600 a month. As a part-time real estate agent — a job she says “doesn’t make money” — and working 16 hours a week for an airline, the total cost of childcare, rent and high prices is compounded, she said. It left him in a difficult situation.

“When you put it all together, it’s like a hurricane coming at you,” she said, wiping away tears at the offices of the Children’s Cabinet, a local nonprofit. “Only I do all this. You cannot act in society with ‘only me’.”

Once a week, Ms. Richards goes to a busy food bank and says she now helps with nutrition by handing out mostly self-heating military-style ration packs (usually containing a small entrée, crackers or cheese, dessert and powdered drink). his family. He reluctantly asks for help from his acquaintances, but most of the time he is not successful.

Ms. Richards says she is “not a political person” and just wants a candidate who will help families like hers.

“I’m hopeful that come November we’ll see someone start to help where help is needed,” he said. “I’ll probably be homeless by the end of this year. I’ve exhausted everything I’ve got.”