---(They don't they just exist after 3 years they become zombies)----
Article> One of my clients recently reported getting a job at a fast-food restaurant. Since she's been unemployed and desperately looking for work for nearly a year, I was thrilled for her. She was very excited that she'll be making $7.50 an hour -– a whole quarter more than minimum wage.
After she left my office, I got out a calculator. I've never worked for minimum wage, so I didn't know exactly how much -- or how little -- money that is.
Assuming 80 hours per pay period, my client will be bringing home around $462 every two weeks. That's with no health insurance or retirement contributions.
If I brought home $924 a month, would I even be able to survive? I decided to find out.
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How do people survive on minimum wage?- MSN Money
Couple of things I note that this author clearly doesn't understand about people who make minimum wage, or something not much higher.
1) And this is a biggie . . . THEY DON'T LIVE ALONE!
Usually, people working at minimum-wage jobs are very young, either teenagers or in their early twenties. This means that, more than likely, they are still occupying space with their parents. Even if their parents are charging them rent, they ain't charging $400 a month.
If they are not living with their parents, they can either do the math for themselves, or have it done for them very quickly at the first apartment complex they apply to and get turned down by. At this point, they either find a roommate - or even more than one - or they look for a room to rent in someone else's house. Again, whatever rent they get charged with either arrangement, it ain't gonna be $400 a month.
For someone a bit older who has perhaps lost his or her job or has some other reason for needing to accept a low-paying job, he or she is very likely married, and the spouse is also working. This means that, while the rent may actually be $400 a month or more, there's more money going toward it than just the minimum wage.
2) People with minimum-wage jobs rarely live in houses.
They're much, MUCH more likely to live in an apartment. Now, perhaps this is different in other places, but where I live, water is almost universally included in the rent of any large, managed apartment complex. They also usually have MUCH lower utility bills in all respects than a house does. If I had been paying $200 a month for utilities back when I lived in apartments, I'd have freaked.
Also, please see #1. It's unlikely that they're paying the utilities all by themselves.
3) Depending on where they live, they likely avail themselves of public transportation as much as possible.
And full coverage car insurance? Yeah, right. If they're law-abiding, they have the minimum-coverage liability required to drive legally.
4) Where did this person get the idea that "able-bodied adults" don't qualify for Medicaid? It depends on the circumstances, but odds are very good that if you make minimum wage, you probably do qualify.
5) The stuff this person skipped, like clothing. Car maintenance. Birthdays. Christmas. School field trips. Toilet paper and toothpaste.
I'll bet money that this person buys his clothes brand-new, possibly at a mall, takes his car to a nice mechanic, throws his kid birthday parties somewhere nice, loads the Christmas tree with presents, and buys toilet paper and toothpaste and such at the supermarket while he's grocery shopping.
Poor people, on the other hand, do things a bit more creatively than that.
They buy their clothes secondhand from a thrift store (you can find some really cool stuff like this if you're willing to work at it), and they buy them a lot less often. They get a friend who knows cars to do their maintenance, or they do it themselves. As mentioned before, they probably don't have kids, but if they do, they have the party at their house or in the city park, with presents bought at a discount store. The schools generally have ways of working around costs for field trips for low-income students, and I frankly can't remember paid field trips coming up more than once a year for either of my older kids, anyway. For Christmas, it's back to the discount store, and they only buy a few presents (again, if they even have kids). Toiletries and other sundries are bought at that self-same discount store, or even a dollar store, if they have one in their area.
The author's right about one thing: there's a lot he's missing.