From this link http://finances.msn.com/saving-money-advice/6952105 here's a bit on the Federal minimum wage throughout the past decades and what it bought: 1950 •Minimum wage: $0.75 per hour •Gas: $0.27 or 22 minutes •Movie ticket: $0.48 or 38 minutes •Rent: $42 or 56 hours 1960 •Minimum wage: $1 per hour •Gas: $0.31 or 19 minutes •Movie ticket: $0.69 or 41 minutes •Rent: $71 or 71 hours 1970 •Minimum wage: $1.60 per hour •Gas: $0.36 or 14 minutes •Movie ticket: $1.55 or 58 minutes •Rent: $108 or 67.5 hours 1980 •Minimum wage: $3.10 per hour •Gas: $1.25 or 24 minutes •Movie ticket: $2.60 or 50 minutes •Rent: $243 or 78 hours 1990 •Minimum wage: $3.80 per hour •Gas: $1.13 or 18 minutes •Movie ticket: $4.23 or 1 hour, 7 minutes •Rent: $447 or 118 hours 2000 •Minimum wage: $5.15 per hour •Gas: $1.49 or 17 minutes •Movie ticket: $5.39 or 1 hour, 3 minutes •Rent: $602 or 117 hours 2010 •Minimum wage: $7.25 per hour •Gas: $2.78 or 23 minutes •Movie ticket: $7.95 or 1 hour, 6 minutes •Rent: $789 or 109 hours Can someone live on this? $7.25 X 2080 hours = $15,080 X 85% (after taxes) = $12,818 / 12 months = $1,068 per month. For 1 person in Vancouver, WA: 600 (1 br apt) 100 (food) 75 (utilities) 40 (cell phone without bells & whistles) 50 (auto ins) 150 (gas) 100 (misc- used clothing, entertainment (free if it’s HCP’s wife)) $1,115 total So it is possible to live on the Federal minimum wage as food can be less as well as gas & entertainment. Or, someone can share an apt with another person and save there.
Interesting stats. Even those 2010 stats look good, gas for $2.78, a movie ticket for $7.95? I found a old Montgomery Ward catalog from 1980, and it was interesting to look through it and see all the things from my childhood, and the prices of things. Electronics are one thing that has really come down in price. I saw an ad for a VCR for like $500, which is more like $1,000 in todays money. Food is also one thing that is actually cheaper these days when adjusted for inflation than it was in 1950 (also lower quality), but that's another matter. One person would have a tough time making ends meet on minimum wage. But they get by somehow, a roomate would bring down the utility and and rent costs. Many people take public transportation to avoid the car costs. So people do get by.
As a single guy making a lot more than that per year and still finding it tight to live, I can sympathize with someone working 40-60 hours a week for minimum wage and trying to do the same. I find it harder to sympathize with someone who is a single parent with that kind of income, or a family living off one income and otherwise being on the dole. You should only have children once you have established yourself enough to be able to fully support them independently--even in the event of a divorce. Even then you should only have as many as you can afford. A couple of caveats to what you've calculated--most people making minimum wage won't own a vehicle outright so monthly payments would be included. Otherwise no vehicle. Also, I think $15k is about where you'll get a maximum rebate on taxes, maybe what, 8% back? 10%? Most people would also want to have television and/or internet which would be at least $60/mo. Basically means there is next to nothing, nothing, or less than nothing (debt) left over at the end of the month. Living alone definitely doesn't seem to be a good option.
Most people don't work for minimum wage for very long. If you do make minimum wage, you probably need a roommate to help with the expenses. $60 for tv is $30 split 2 ways.
Oh, it'd be a meager existence all right. But it can be done. And maybe it's spur one on to better themselves in some away.
Minimum wage jobs are for high school/college kids. IMO, you must be extremely unmotivated to have a minimum wage job as an adult.
As an example my father went to the local plant the day it opened and got a job working in the tool crib for next to nothing. Twenty-five years later he was a supervisor on the factory floor (before the plant shut down and moved production overseas, but that is a discussion for the loving embrace people are giving corporations in the other thread). Sadly most minimum wage jobs are also dead end jobs. This is what makes education so fundamental. Night classes, technical schools, company-provided training--anything if college/university isn't an affordable option. Or join the military (if you qualify) and have them pay for it. Seeing politicians scoff at Obama for suggesting that it should be an American ideal for every child to go to college is shocking. Probably shouldn't have said the O-word but I'm sure one of our regulars will come into this thread and steer it in that direction regardless.
Well, not everyone is suited for college. There's a great High School in Chicago, Lane Tech. They have a two track educational program. If you want to go to college, they offer courses geared towards getting you in. If you don't, they offer woodshop, welding, autoshop, and other skills oriented classes that you can have a career doing. I think anyone who wants to go to college should have the opportunity, but it shouldn't be a requirement. And military service is an honorable career choice.
^ Which is something they do here as well and I don't agree with it. They're making 13-year olds decide if college is for them and then once they get on the trade track it is very difficult for them to switch back if they decide, as they mature, that college is something they'd be interested in. It also makes it harder to get into college if you're high school credits are less academic and means most who have done the career track can't go to college until they become a mature student which I think is 25 in most places. By that point I don't know what percentage have given up on it or had circumstances conspire against them in the meantime but I think it'd be high.
For 6 years after HS I worked a minimum wage job. This was from '91-97. $4.75/hr. It was rough, but it was just me. Could not imagine what a person would do if they made minimum and had to support a family. I was scraping by check to check...... hope I am never in that situation again.
Well, your example used Vancouver, WA. The minimum wage there is $9.04, and $8.80 in OR. So a person living in WA, but working in WA or OR actually is a bit better off than your example. Do-able. But in some states, where the minimum wage is less but the cost of living is more, that's hard to make ends meet.
