>> reporter: forget his wants health insurance claims servicer kendrick brown has barely been able to afford life's necessities, like a car after his was totaled. >> my insurance paid off what the car was worth, but, as far as what i had borrowed to actually purchase the car, i still owed. once you get in such a hole, you're like, would it make more sense for me to actually, you know, file bankruptcy? >> reporter: so when his employer, aetna, recently, voluntarily and suddenly raised its minimum wage to $16 an hour. >> after taxes, it's somewhere between $100 and $150 dollars every check? and, that goes a long way. that goes a long way. >> reporter: brown is one of the roughly 6,000 lowest-paid aetna employees, out of a workforce of 49,000, who got raises this spring. on average, 11%, with some as high as 33%. call centers like this one in fresno, california are home to many of the firm's lowest paid workers. we visited on the payday the raises took effect. >> everyone went in and looked and were like, "oh, it's there!" you know? this, it's really there. >> reporter: kristen sargent a