How do people survive on minimum wage?

[Cecilie1200]

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If you choose to be satisfied with a minimum wage job, you can certainly survive. Move back in with your family, move in with friends, share an apartment with others.

Yeah - like I'm sure the folks in that situation never thought of that. Gee, you must be a genius. If all that fails, can they move in with you?

I think that's the point, PoohPoo. They DID think of that . . . and they're doing it. That's how they get by on minimum-wage. Why is it you always assume that whatever the solution is, it MUST somehow be impossible and unworkable, and therefore the poor are still helpless victims whose only solution is lots and lots of government pork from you, the benevolent elitists?

 

[LoneLaugher]

****! That is so damed simple!

 

[Google]

****! That is so damed simple!

Another deep and enlightening post.

 

[Cecilie1200]

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If you choose to be satisfied with a minimum wage job, you can certainly survive. Move back in with your family, move in with friends, share an apartment with others. No, your lifestyle may not be what you would like it to be, and hopefully that will motivate you to do a good job at work and advance, and/or take classes and/or get training on a better paying position.

There are plenty of people who do that, and no one is holding a gun to their head to do it. It's their choice because they want a better lifestyle.

Some want to paint minimum wage earners as permanent "victims" when they are not. They are people who are where they are right now, but who can make a decision to do what it takes to create a better existence for themselves. Unless they suffer from a physical and/or mental condition, it's up to them.

Regardless of what they are told by those who "care" so much about them.

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Ummm... most people who are in minimum wage jobs lack the resources to further themselves. They have a family to provide for, bills to pay, kids that they need to spend time with. All that while juggling one and more often two and sometimes three jobs to make ends meet.

Oh, really? REALLY? "Most" people in minimum-wage jobs have families to provide for, do they? Prove it.

It's not due to a lack of effort.

Plus, you guys act like there's countless jobs that can completely replace all the low wage jobs. Everybody can get a better paying job, they just don't try hard enough! There's over a hundred million and more of them!

Dude, even in this economy, there are lots of good-paying jobs going empty because there just aren't enough qualified people to fill them. In part, this is what Rick Santorum was talking about when he referred to the "elitism" of thinking everyone should go to college: this sort of disdain toward blue-collar workers has left many areas with large shortages of welders, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc.

Look around, think outside the damned box. Geez.

 

[Texanmike]

They don't, they can't, I've been saying that for years, more than 75% of those working for minimum wage are adults and minimum wage currently has the lowest spending power in history. In the richest country in the world, the poorest worker should make a living wage.

What? No they shouldn't. They should make a wage commiserate with what they produce. We should get rid of the minimum wage all together. No matter how "high" your minimum wage is the poorest people will still be relatively poor.

Mike

 

[NYcarbineer]

Or you dont live in California or New York or Michigan or any other liberal ran state

The map is that of

how many hours of work at the minimum wage would be required to afford a two-bedroom unit at Fair Market Rent—the government’s measure for the monthly cost of a “modest, non luxury rental unit” in a specific area, plus utilities. In no state was a 40-hour work week enough

Why affordable housing is a myth, in one chart - The Washington Post

Well, I guess my personal experience of being able to afford an apartment working much less hours than your chart says I need to is not true. My reality is actually right wing propaganda.

How many hours a week to you work, and how come you are able to afford...actually you are probably one of those people that hog computers at the public library that have incredibly poor personal hygiene. I believe the politically correct term is 'urban outdoors man'

I'm not surprised to find out that you work for minimum wage.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Keep in mind, conservatives not only want to get rid of the minimum wage, or at least not raise it, EVER,

they also want to get rid of the government benefits that go to the working poor.

Once again, more proof that the goal of conservative economics is to increase the gap between rich and poor.

 

[Google]

The map is that of

how many hours of work at the minimum wage would be required to afford a two-bedroom unit at Fair Market Rent—the government’s measure for the monthly cost of a “modest, non luxury rental unit” in a specific area, plus utilities. In no state was a 40-hour work week enough

Why affordable housing is a myth, in one chart - The Washington Post

Well, I guess my personal experience of being able to afford an apartment working much less hours than your chart says I need to is not true. My reality is actually right wing propaganda.

How many hours a week to you work, and how come you are able to afford...actually you are probably one of those people that hog computers at the public library that have incredibly poor personal hygiene. I believe the politically correct term is 'urban outdoors man'

I'm not surprised to find out that you work for minimum wage.

It is condescending insult after insult toward those who you feel you are superior to. Liberals on this thread have insulted everyone that works in the food service industry, bartenders, on and on--while simultaneously proclaiming that they want to help them, not by improving the economic growth, but by forcing the bastards who unjustly pay them so poorly to raise their wages.

 

[Google]

Keep in mind, conservatives not only want to get rid of the minimum wage, or at least not raise it, EVER,

they also want to get rid of the government benefits that go to the working poor.

Once again, more proof that the goal of conservative economics is to increase the gap between rich and poor.

What should the minimum wage be?

 

[Buford]

If you're trying to survive on minimum wage, the first thing you need to do is get some education in your off time. Duh.

 

[Buford]

Keep in mind, conservatives not only want to get rid of the minimum wage, or at least not raise it, EVER,

they also want to get rid of the government benefits that go to the working poor.

Once again, more proof that the goal of conservative economics is to increase the gap between rich and poor.

It's not the job of govt to subsidize people's income. Get an education. There has always been a gap between the rich and poor and there always will be. Many people who have been poor increase their wealth as their life progresses. No one is guaranteed financial security in a free society. It's called personal responsibility.

 

[Texanmike]

So then, to all of those who think you should make a so called "living wage"... how much should it be? What should the minimum wage be?

Mike

 

[Texanmike]

And further more. To those that complain that "the richest country in the world and not everyone working makes a living wage... its a travesty"... Maybe the fact that just showing up at work and digging a hole and filling it back up again doesn't earn you a "living wage" is part of the reason that we are the richest country in the world?

Mike

 

[Cecilie1200]

ok, raise thne min wage, what happens things cost more,

Everything cost more? How much more?
Empirical evidence?

LOL! My bad, I know better than to ask for that!

It's called "inflation", PoohPoo. Look it up.

Only a leftist asks for "empirical evidence" of something common sense tells everyone else. Gee, if labor costs more than it did before, whatever will the employer do to compensate? Maybe in Liberal Lala Land, the employer - who, after all, exists solely for the purpose of altruistically providing jobs - simply eats the increase in labor costs, but in the real world, he cuts his labor force, raises his prices, or both.

 

[Cecilie1200]

No lie. You can work for $5974 an hour if you want. You just fill out what you want to be paid when you get hired. Everyone knows that.

Nope, you cant do that, but why should you be able to?

Didn't you get the memo? If someone doesn't have a job, they can just "go get one".

Do you really have that much trouble finding a job? Damn, honey, you must be SERIOUSLY stupid or unskilled.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I tip 20%, and I'm a consultant who travels on the company dime all the time.

A good bartender can make $30/hr easy.

Here is drinking to the future of America. Lets all get bartending jobs for 30 bucks an hour. Who would have thought that this was the future. Fuk the advanced degree. Get a mixology cert. Work great hours. Meet lots of drunks. Ank make 30 dollars an hour.

Fuk yea.

It's actually a new concept to you that one makes money by giving people what they want? Seriously?

 

[Inthemiddle]

If you're trying to survive on minimum wage, the first thing you need to do is get some education in your off time. Duh.

Sure, take all that extra money you're making and pay for some college classes.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Or you dont live in California or New York or Michigan or any other liberal ran state

The map is that of

how many hours of work at the minimum wage would be required to afford a two-bedroom unit at Fair Market Rent—the government’s measure for the monthly cost of a “modest, non luxury rental unit” in a specific area, plus utilities. In no state was a 40-hour work week enough

Why affordable housing is a myth, in one chart - The Washington Post

Well, I guess my personal experience of being able to afford an apartment working much less hours than your chart says I need to is not true. My reality is actually right wing propaganda.

How many hours a week to you work, and how come you are able to afford...actually you are probably one of those people that hog computers at the public library that have incredibly poor personal hygiene. I believe the politically correct term is 'urban outdoors man'

A two-bedroom apartment on minimum wage? What kind of DUMBASS expects to have a two-bedroom apartment on minimum wage?

 

[Cecilie1200]

---(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.

read more How do people survive on minimum wage?- MSN Money

I think everyone should start out making minimum wage. This will give them a frame of reference as they make decisions for their future.

A woman customer, the other day, was heatedly complaining that her 24 year old son had moved back home, because he can't find a job and has had jobs but been fired, and he told her he refused to work for minimun wage, or at a fast food place, for low wages. I asked if he had any skills or higher learning and she said...no. lol.

Doesn't she know that if the kid knows he can move back home, he WILL! He will let himself be fired because it is easier to live with mommy and daddy. They, fail their son, by not making him responsible for his own livelihood.

It's pretty easy to live on min. wage. Just get some roommates, drop the cell phone and other "necessities" and look for a job that you will keep, because you have to share the rent. It just might make you want to go to a trade school or something else to improve your stature in life.

Just one correction: if you want to work, you probably can't afford to drop the phone. Most employers at that level get really pissy if they can't get in touch with you, and cell phones these days are actually cheaper than a land line. I would substitute "get the most basic, bare-bones, inexpensive phone plan you can find".

 

[Cecilie1200]

I think everyone should start out making minimum wage. This will give them a frame of reference as they make decisions for their future.

A woman customer, the other day, was heatedly complaining that her 24 year old son had moved back home, because he can't find a job and has had jobs but been fired, and he told her he refused to work for minimun wage, or at a fast food place, for low wages. I asked if he had any skills or higher learning and she said...no. lol.

Doesn't she know that if the kid knows he can move back home, he WILL! He will let himself be fired because it is easier to live with mommy and daddy. They, fail their son, by not making him responsible for his own livelihood.

It's pretty easy to live on min. wage. Just get some roommates, drop the cell phone and other "necessities" and look for a job that you will keep, because you have to share the rent. It just might make you want to go to a trade school or something else to improve your stature in life.

I agree with the premise of this post but I don't think it's so easy.

In New York, for example, I'm not sure how anyone lives on minimum wage.

I'm not sure why anyone lives in New York, but one assumes they do it the same way poor people everywhere do it: by getting a lot of annoying roommates and doing without everything they can possibly live without.