It’s a struggle at this wage almost everywhere in the Country.
Clothing budget? Worked with 10 shirts and pants for the last 15years. 2coats, one for winter and one for freezing weather. One business suit for official ceremonies. Entire wardrobe cost less than 750. So 50 bucks a year, $4.16 a month.
Around where live, rent is about $800 for a 2 bedroom so with a roommate 24 hours of rent is under $15/person (1br and studio units aren’t much less than that, for double that you can have a 2br in a pretty prime location as far as the local area goes). 3 meals is also about $15 (cooking at home for most of them). Utilities also about $7.50. And health care … Same (ACA subsidies etc bring it way down at that wage). Maybe $10 for clothing, and save $20. Take $10 for taxes and you’re still left with $27.50 for everything else. Rent the place on your own and you’ve still got money left over. (Need to spend more, cut the savings, though it’s usually recommended to save at least 15% for retirement and I tend to go for “pay yourself first”)
I know these numbers don’t work in NYC or SF (they may not actually work here – it’s very napkin math-y), but that’s why minimum wage should be a state or county issue rather than federal. My state has decided that the minimum wage is $14/hour this year. Most states / most of the population is in states with minimum wages much higher than the federal minimum.
you can make a meal for close to 2 bucks if you try.. so thats $6. if you share a room with a few people you can get a place for a few hundred a month so thats $30. 5 pack of Hanes shirts is like 30 bucks so lets call it $3 there. cheap pants are like 10 bucks so 2 pair thats 20. 5 pack of underwear for around 20 bucks. Yea…pretty easy if you budget
What if instead of us making too little, things just cost too much? This is how capitalism works and profits will always come before people.
We inflated ourselves into this mess staring in the 80s at least because we can’t stop printing more money to pay our debts. It’s just as simple as that, we fucked up our monetary policy and now millennials, genz and the rest will have to suffer for it. Maybe gen alpha sees some resolve by 50.
And retirement plan savings ?
Everyone saying “make more” or “minimum wage jobs aren’t a career” are clowns. If everyone could make more, they would. Unfortunately, in the world we live in, no all 8 billion people can work 100k salary jobs. And minimum wage is made exactly for the reasoning of being livable under it. Also, what jobs are typically minimum wage? Grocery store employees, restaurant workers, and factory workers (non-union) heavily fall under this umbrella. These are jobs that have to be done to make our society function, yet because they aren’t doctors, we tell them they’re worth the bottom of the barrel wages?
Can’t we all just admit that the cost of living is too high for current wages or that wages need to rise to keep up? Maybe the executives don’t need another 5 million dollar bonus, and that can be distributed to those actually doing the labor, but struggling to survive. Most Americans can not afford a $500 emergency if it comes up. Housing costs are rising, and a single family home is unobtainable to most at this point in time. The system is failing. No amount of bootstrap pulling is going to change that.
If you think 2024 is tough, I bet you’d hate the 1800’s.
As a young adult 15 years ago, I (and my now wife) made it work when we were making $8 or $9/hr.
Wasn’t glamorous, but it can be done. A lot of lessons learned as well.
In fact, every one of my friends was basically making $7-$10/hr when we were in our early or mid 20’s. These jobs now generally pay $15/hr + in my area.
The OP should read: if you are still making minimum wage in your 30’s, then you need to make some adjustments.
Fwiw, people who work and can’t pay their bills also generally qualify for state and/or federal assistance. Even in my red state .
You can bag groceries at Whole Foods for $25 an hour these days. I lived with roommates for at least the first 3 or 4 years out of college. The idea that people should be able to support a family of four from their first ever job is absurd.
Why do people live in a HCOL city and work minimum wage jobs?
Rents are high because housing is treated like a commodity rather than a necessity for civilization. People are having to pay up to 50% of their income on housing. Fuel prices are the next most important expense. You can’t have a job without a car because American cities are built for cars, not for public transport. Lower wage workers commonly have longer commutes because they live away from their jobs. Food prices have skyrocketed due to fuel prices and price gouging by food industry monopolies. Workers wages stay depressed because immigrants are willing for work harder for less money while living in worse conditions than natives. This is because compared to where they came from conditions aren’t so bad and they are highly motivated by the fact that they left their families, their country, their culture etc. to bet on gold mountain America. It IS possible for “everyone” to be richer but it means that the oligarchs have to give something up and they control the economy. Social democracies are able to pull it off. Why can’t we?
We’re doing it for the billionaires. Without us they couldn’t afford their third or forth yachts, the poor bastards
A song sung by laborers building the Rail Roads would “You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Jesus don’t you call me because I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store”.
This will happen until employees stop it from happening by organizing.
the elite will continue to take until they meet violence.. it’s history repeating itself.
we have had the means to organize and spread information in a millisecond, yet we don’t.
we choose not to stand against them because our lives are comfortable enough, to a degree, and the distractions are plentiful.
How old are you? Why are you only making $15 an hour? No skills? No talent? No education? Take responsibility for your own destiny.
The problem is that people are still accepting $15 an hour jobs.
As long as people take them, employers will try and hire for that amount.
I think there should be negotiations more in the realm of salary for all people in serious businesses rather than hourly wages.
The other issue is that inflation is here to stay. So that number will need to get higher. Then we’re in a consumer economy so the increased demand will make prices higher then it’s three years of inflation while earnings are only coming up for one years worth of inflation maybe.
I hate to get all philosophical but our money is broken. There is an economy that isn’t all that circular when you account for excess printing. The poor people always get the bad credit art in an inflationary economy
25 comments
you left out healthcare.
Make more money.
It’s a struggle at this wage almost everywhere in the Country.
Clothing budget? Worked with 10 shirts and pants for the last 15years. 2coats, one for winter and one for freezing weather. One business suit for official ceremonies. Entire wardrobe cost less than 750. So 50 bucks a year, $4.16 a month.
Around where live, rent is about $800 for a 2 bedroom so with a roommate 24 hours of rent is under $15/person (1br and studio units aren’t much less than that, for double that you can have a 2br in a pretty prime location as far as the local area goes). 3 meals is also about $15 (cooking at home for most of them). Utilities also about $7.50. And health care … Same (ACA subsidies etc bring it way down at that wage). Maybe $10 for clothing, and save $20. Take $10 for taxes and you’re still left with $27.50 for everything else. Rent the place on your own and you’ve still got money left over. (Need to spend more, cut the savings, though it’s usually recommended to save at least 15% for retirement and I tend to go for “pay yourself first”)
I know these numbers don’t work in NYC or SF (they may not actually work here – it’s very napkin math-y), but that’s why minimum wage should be a state or county issue rather than federal. My state has decided that the minimum wage is $14/hour this year. Most states / most of the population is in states with minimum wages much higher than the federal minimum.
you can make a meal for close to 2 bucks if you try.. so thats $6. if you share a room with a few people you can get a place for a few hundred a month so thats $30. 5 pack of Hanes shirts is like 30 bucks so lets call it $3 there. cheap pants are like 10 bucks so 2 pair thats 20. 5 pack of underwear for around 20 bucks. Yea…pretty easy if you budget
What if instead of us making too little, things just cost too much? This is how capitalism works and profits will always come before people.
We inflated ourselves into this mess staring in the 80s at least because we can’t stop printing more money to pay our debts. It’s just as simple as that, we fucked up our monetary policy and now millennials, genz and the rest will have to suffer for it. Maybe gen alpha sees some resolve by 50.
And retirement plan savings ?
Everyone saying “make more” or “minimum wage jobs aren’t a career” are clowns. If everyone could make more, they would. Unfortunately, in the world we live in, no all 8 billion people can work 100k salary jobs. And minimum wage is made exactly for the reasoning of being livable under it. Also, what jobs are typically minimum wage? Grocery store employees, restaurant workers, and factory workers (non-union) heavily fall under this umbrella. These are jobs that have to be done to make our society function, yet because they aren’t doctors, we tell them they’re worth the bottom of the barrel wages?
Can’t we all just admit that the cost of living is too high for current wages or that wages need to rise to keep up? Maybe the executives don’t need another 5 million dollar bonus, and that can be distributed to those actually doing the labor, but struggling to survive. Most Americans can not afford a $500 emergency if it comes up. Housing costs are rising, and a single family home is unobtainable to most at this point in time. The system is failing. No amount of bootstrap pulling is going to change that.
If you think 2024 is tough, I bet you’d hate the 1800’s.
As a young adult 15 years ago, I (and my now wife) made it work when we were making $8 or $9/hr.
Wasn’t glamorous, but it can be done. A lot of lessons learned as well.
In fact, every one of my friends was basically making $7-$10/hr when we were in our early or mid 20’s. These jobs now generally pay $15/hr + in my area.
The OP should read: if you are still making minimum wage in your 30’s, then you need to make some adjustments.
Fwiw, people who work and can’t pay their bills also generally qualify for state and/or federal assistance. Even in my red state .
You can bag groceries at Whole Foods for $25 an hour these days. I lived with roommates for at least the first 3 or 4 years out of college. The idea that people should be able to support a family of four from their first ever job is absurd.
After taxes net pay is probably more like $11/hr.
After taxes it’s not shit
No it’s not, it’s about $97 after payroll taxes.
source: worked $15 an hour job for a few years
This is the new American dream: [https://www.bestbuy.com/site/tcl-98-class-s5-s-class-led-4k-uhd-hdr-smart-tv-with-google-tv/6551177.p?skuId=6551177](https://www.bestbuy.com/site/tcl-98-class-s5-s-class-led-4k-uhd-hdr-smart-tv-with-google-tv/6551177.p?skuId=6551177)
It’s so the oligarchs get richer obviously.
lol go to Russia, def not starving over there
Why do people live in a HCOL city and work minimum wage jobs?
Rents are high because housing is treated like a commodity rather than a necessity for civilization. People are having to pay up to 50% of their income on housing. Fuel prices are the next most important expense. You can’t have a job without a car because American cities are built for cars, not for public transport. Lower wage workers commonly have longer commutes because they live away from their jobs. Food prices have skyrocketed due to fuel prices and price gouging by food industry monopolies. Workers wages stay depressed because immigrants are willing for work harder for less money while living in worse conditions than natives. This is because compared to where they came from conditions aren’t so bad and they are highly motivated by the fact that they left their families, their country, their culture etc. to bet on gold mountain America. It IS possible for “everyone” to be richer but it means that the oligarchs have to give something up and they control the economy. Social democracies are able to pull it off. Why can’t we?
We’re doing it for the billionaires. Without us they couldn’t afford their third or forth yachts, the poor bastards
A song sung by laborers building the Rail Roads would “You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Jesus don’t you call me because I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store”.
This will happen until employees stop it from happening by organizing.
the elite will continue to take until they meet violence.. it’s history repeating itself.
we have had the means to organize and spread information in a millisecond, yet we don’t.
we choose not to stand against them because our lives are comfortable enough, to a degree, and the distractions are plentiful.
How old are you? Why are you only making $15 an hour? No skills? No talent? No education? Take responsibility for your own destiny.
The problem is that people are still accepting $15 an hour jobs.
As long as people take them, employers will try and hire for that amount.
I think there should be negotiations more in the realm of salary for all people in serious businesses rather than hourly wages.
The other issue is that inflation is here to stay. So that number will need to get higher. Then we’re in a consumer economy so the increased demand will make prices higher then it’s three years of inflation while earnings are only coming up for one years worth of inflation maybe.
I hate to get all philosophical but our money is broken. There is an economy that isn’t all that circular when you account for excess printing. The poor people always get the bad credit art in an inflationary economy