I can't even live on my Social Security without scratching around for extra income, which breaks down to a little more an hour than minimum wage. Neither is a living wage any more.

so yeah, trimming utilities back and eating beans and rice, I could live on minimum wage. I just can't live very well on it and there is no way I could survive my health issues long term on minimum wage.

No one else should have to, either. If a business isn't making enough to pay its employees enough to live on, then it needs to go under.

where it's a whopping $10 an hour.

-Laelth

My first job right out of the Army was working in a mall bookstore for minimum wage. I rarely was able to work 40 hours a week; I averaged 32-35 hours weekly. I didn't have a car, which cut down on expenses. I shared an apartment with a room-mate a five minute walk from the mall. But the lack of transportation made it very difficult to look for work requiring a commute. I didn't have any credit cards. I never had a full fridge. I lived off of McDonald's and coffee. Every single day was a struggle to pay rent, pay for clothing, pay the utilities. Every day was a day closer to a hoped-for raise, even if only 50 cents per hour every year ( I lasted 2 years before finally crawling off the minimum wage shitheap.)

When my raise was due, the store manager invented some bogus reason why I would only receive a 35-cent raise instead of 50 cents. By that time, I had managed to buy an old clunker car with the last of my savings, and got a job paying a dollar or so more an hour. When my new boss said: "You're hired", I called up the manager who had denied me my raise ( I was the best employee in the store) and quit on the spot, no notice, no nothing. He hadn't given me the raise I had earned, and treated me like a replaceable cog in the machine. So that was all he got.

Today, I have a thriving, rewarding career with a generous salary and benefits.

If that guy is still a harried little store manager with a collection of cheap clip-on ties somewhere, I won't be able to stifle at least a little satisfaction from that.

Seriously, I spend at least $80/day between work, lunch, coffee, etc. Min wage here should be $15/hour no question.

The minimum wage gives a veneer of accountability to employers who oppress their workers with wage slavery. It allows them to say "See? I pay workers what the government says I must pay them, and not a penny less!" It is yet another instrument of worker oppression.

It does seem like it sets an arbitrary bar that may cause more harm than good. For example, setting the minimum wage to $10/hr in Bumfuck, Ohio might be awesome there, but it does little for those in NYC. But the mangers in NYC are like "we're paying $10.50/hr, which is above minimum wage!!!!"... But come on, that's no going to cut it in a city where it costs well over a $1,000 to rent a closet. It seems the only way for people to get fair wages is for the workers to locally organize to get wages that are for their location. Or maybe not, I dunno.

I've been through periods of personal austerity before.

However, I am also caring for a special needs child and also helping my (ex)stepdaughter and her husband as they work on their college degrees. I also need to help out my (ex)stepson with school activities expenses because his birth father doesn't. I wouldn't be able to do these things on minimum wage.

I think my survival wage is currently about 20$/hour. Even that is very sketchy. I better not have my car break down or any medical issues at that wage or debt/bankruptcy follow.

not saying it would be pretty, but i think all of us could do it if we had too.

that said, it's incredibly hard to escape from that trap and it ain't right, especially if kids are involved.

Thanks for posting this great find!

Julie

Just not where I'm living now, and at my current lifestyle.

Only IF one:

*owns house and property outright
(no rent, no mortgage, no payments)

*has no other debts requiring regular payments

*doesn't use credit cards

*lives in an area with a low Cost of Living
(especially low Winter Heating costs)

*grows or produces a good percentage of his/her own food

*can repair his own vehicle from junkyard parts
and enjoys driving & maintaining old vehicles,
and doesn't need to drive them very many miles per week

*is very healthy with little Health Care overhead

*one has no dependents


...even then, it can be challenging.

I'm no proponent of not raising the minimum wage, but some of you are way too hyperbolic. Simply putting in my current expenses I came up to $1240 left over per year and I own next to nothing. Not a lot of money left to be certain, but greater than 0. Of course that doesn't include surprise emergencies so you have to hope you don't get any of those, it doesn't include savings (ha!), and it doesn't include entertainment. But it can be done. The first thing you must do is learn -not- to listen to commercials (and in fact, you're better off if you don't use television at all) and learn to be happy with living, not owning.

So is it what many would consider a 'good' life? Hell no. Not even close. But that wasn't the question. The question is 'Is it possible?'. And yes, in central Indiana, it IS possible.

Barely. Elsewhere? I don't think it's possible at all most other places.

The calculator gives the gross income, not the net.

...tax calculation in a w-2 sense, and the figures I used are my after-tax totals in a sales tax sense. So like where it asked food, the number I used is the total amount I spend on groceries after taxes (or the total standard grocery bill).

Like I said...its not a great way to live, but at least in this one area its possible. I doubt there are many more like it (and I'm not even sure it'll be possible here much longer; I've had to cut more and more recently despite the claim of 'near-zero inflation'). Most of it comes from two factors: just how little a person can actually spend on food, and that I found an apartment for under $450/month with a tiny electric bill. There aren't a ton of those, but there aren't a ton of people who are trying to live alone on such low income either.

Although mr k would be working as well so I might only have to do 80 or so to break even.

is if I were to get rid of my car/insurance/gas expenses and got a room in which I'd pay $450/mo which covered utilities, $250/mo for food. That would require that I also live near a store and a my place of employment. It would also leave nothing to work with to pursue educational opportunities, save up for a vehicle in case I was to ever get offered a higher paying job further away, or pay for unexpected events.

I guess the key point is that it means I would have to get rid of my transportation, which in turn would make it far more difficult to get out of the minimum wage paying job. If I was able to save up to buy a used vehicle, I could also keep it stored for the event in which I'd find a better paying job. Since I wouldn't be driving it much, maintenance and gas would be close to zero. However, I'd still have to maintain the yearly registration and inspection at about $120/yr.

So I suppose it's possible for a single person where I'm from to do it, but it would require a lot of things to fall into the right place. Cheap place to live that is close to work and a place to shop and for nothing to ever go wrong. Even if everything goes right, it would still be a long and difficult process, but nothing ever goes 100% smooth and anything could cause everything to collapse.


I couldn't imagine doing it if I had a child though, even with support.

$430 month rent, live within walking distance of work, and while there is transportation I only use it to go farther places. Hence my monthly transportation is under $20 + insurance ($36.50 every month) and we don't have inspection (I'm not sure what that even refers to?). $30/year is my registration.

But totally agree that with a child, or an SO not working or anything like that it would be absolutely impossible even in the cheapest places in the entire nation. That's unconscionable.

My monthly Social Security check is $1400, which is $350 a week.