David pinned the notice to the break room wall with trembling hands. "Minimum Wage Increase - Effective Next Month." Around him, the convenience store hummed with its usual fluorescent drone, but the air felt different. Lighter, somehow.

"Maybe I can quit the night shift at the warehouse," Maria whispered, mental calculations playing across her face. "Actually help Tommy with his homework instead of falling asleep over his math book."

Tommy was in David's sister's class at the community college. She taught developmental math there – the remedial classes they'd added after the state made tuition free at public colleges. Her classroom was full of students like Tommy, brilliant kids who'd worked jobs instead of joining study groups, who'd chosen shifts over tutoring sessions.

The bell chimed as Mrs. Chen from the dry cleaners next door entered, clutching her grandson Kevin's hand. "Did you see?" she asked, pointing at an identical notice in her window. "Kevin can stay in preschool full days now. The subsidy finally came through."

David remembered Kevin's mother crying last year when she'd had to pull him out of the early learning center. Now the boy was back, coming home each day with new words, new songs, new possibilities.

His phone buzzed – a text from his sister: "Half my class signed up for the workforce development program. The one with the paid apprenticeships? Tommy's top of the list."

Maria was still staring at the notice, her face soft with something that looked like hope. Outside, the city bus rolled past – now running every fifteen minutes instead of every hour, after the transit initiative passed. David watched Tommy's mother catch it easily, no longer having to leave an hour early for her healthcare training program.

The bell chimed again. Time to open. David straightened the notice one last time, remembering how his own mother had worked three jobs, how she'd aged decades in what felt like months. How different things might have been if...

But that was then. The morning light streamed through the window, catching the edge of the notice, making it glow.