Corrine Cookie Peterson, a 72-year-old widow, arrives at AIM Aerospaces manufacturing plant in Sumner at 6:30 a.m. to assemble ventilation ducts for Boeing jets.

Arthritis restricts her to a 40-hour week, with no overtime. Some days, she comes home with hands orange from chemicals, her eyes itchy from the fiberglass.

After seven years, shes worked her way up from a starting wage of $10 an hour to $13.30.

Peterson supports the 17-year-old grandson who lives with her in Bonney Lake thanks to her monthly Social Security check for about $1,000.

Thats my house payment, says Peterson. I mainly work for my utilities and food and to keep him in clothes. Ive gone to the food bank quite a few times.

Petersons low wages are not exceptional.

In 2013, outside of Boeing, a third of production workers at local aerospace parts manufacturers companies that get tax breaks intended to preserve good jobs in the state earned between $10 and $15 an hour, a Seattle Times analysis of state data shows.

AIMs filing to the state shows that three quarters of the 314 production workers at its Sumner plant at the end of 2013 earned $15 an hour or less.

Two thirds of the production workers at AIMs Auburn and Renton manufacturing plants fell in the same low-wage category.

Minimum wage

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Low wages for aerospace workers despite tax breaks for employers