The other problem is: a living wage WHERE?
A living wage in my state is totally different than one in your state. The mortgage on my almost 3k sq ft house with a huge shop is about 1/2 what rent is in NY, NJ, or CA. About $1k a month.
If I knew I’d be king. I believe our addiction to cheap ■■■■ and crap food is a major source of the problem.
A waitress putting in the 40hours a week at the diner in Anywhere, USA should feel whole, not like she needs another job and food stamps.
Have we reached a point where that is impossible? Has automation and globalization replaced us? Then we need universal income. The robots should work for us, not the other way around.
Otherwise, what’s the point? Why be here at all?
Where the human is.
McDonalds would have to pay $19/hr here.
That’s one reason I’m fine with states or cities setting wages, but not federal.
Unfortunately that’s the future of tolls. I went back to tolls because It’s a much easier job than what I had and it still pays 25 an hour. I don’t need the extra money and refuse all OT. But toll collectors are dinosaurs. I came back because I can retire next year if I choose to do so.
I haven’t paid a toll since 1997. Partially because I work for them, but mainly because I do not put myself in a position where I’d have to pay tolls. I live in NJ. And yes, it can be done.
One other thing too. I also never put myself in a position to deal with heavy traffic. NJ is like an ant hill. I’m in my early 50s yet never in my entire life did I have to fight traffic to and from work. It can be done.
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I really can’t answer your question. I’m a high school grad that has never had money problems. I don’t know what it’s like to be on a budget or be poor. And I’ve never had a job better than entry level.
Well no ■■■■■ But if you look at the statistics, a living wage for one person isn’t that much an hour anywhere. Might be higher in big cities, but most everywhere else, not that high. It gets much higher when you add dependents. What employer can be expected to pay that?
Oh I get that and a big part of my personal serenity in this area is the ability to travel heavily on the expensive but lighter traffic tolls, and the ability to set a schedule that avoids traffic.
I’m happy for you for that. This is the American Dream. I worry that you’re one of the last who gets it.
Where I grew up, graduating from the public high school guaranteed you a job at any mill or manufacturing center within 300 miles, and a pay that would afford you 2.5 children and a few acre. But then the local mills got bought out by activist hedge funds who determined it was more profitable to close the them so they could pump prices in Kentucky…whoops, there goes 140 years of community for that shareholder profit.
You don’t have to explain that to me. When I graduated in high school in 1985 I had no need for college. There were plenty of jobs available. Jobs that paid well. I can list half a dozen. I had zero worries. That changed a long long time ago. I would be miserable if I graduated high school right now with the mindset I had back then.
The good ones. I rarely eat fast food but my fav two in the city both pay a livable wage for the area when you include their benefits.
If Walmart and the box stores can’t operate in town while paying its a employees a livable wage then they can get out.
If Bob’s Cleaner’s can’t keep a roof over their employee’s and Bob’s heads then Bob has gotta get off his ass, sell the corvette and start scrubbing too.
If a business can’t even support its employees, or the community its in, then how is it not a leech?
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You’re forgetting something very important. Keep in mind that I’m with you for the most part. You can only pay the person working for you, you can’t account for their dependents. That varies per individual. I agree that a business should pay a living wage to the person they employ, but that may not cover their individual expenses. It may not cover their two kids and place they choose to live. You can’t expect a business to do that.
I know people who are single with no kids who get by on $20,000/year. That’s roughly $10/hr.
If you look at the living wage calculator for NJ that’s about right for a single person. It’s 10-12 dollars an hour for a single person. It may have gone up a few dollars since I last checked, but not too much. It’s when you add dependents it skyrockets. A single person with two dependents goes to over 30 dollars an hour.
Both my kids get by on 12k a year right now. Though full disclosure, I bought them cars and pay their insurance.
I was never richer than in the late 80s when I was making 35-40k a year and still living at home rent free.
The only expenses I had was gas and car insurance. Sometimes my mother would pay that if she saw the bill first. I had more money than I knew what to do with. Then you move out and reality sets in. I’ve always lived comfortable and never on a budget, but I have never even come close to that time in the 80s.
That’s right even in NJ I know people who are single no kids are able to get by on $10/hr. The crazy thing today in a state like NJ, the cost per child for education, healthcare, food is around $50,000!
They must live a Spartan lifestyle making 1600 a month in jersey.
Allan
Tell me something.
If you job made the same pay as sweeping floors in a grocery store, would you continue working where you are, or would you go sweep floors at a grocery store?
I would probably sweep floors at a grocery store. What’s the point again?
Sweeping floors at a grocery store is a minimum wage job (don’t ask how I know)…so if they raise the minimum wage to the point where it’s equal to what you’re currently making, you will need a raise or you will leave (which you just admitted).
Multiply that by the entire workforce, and add in the business owners, and you have prices going up. And everybody is in the same boat as before.
Raising the minimum wage is feel good legislation and nothing more.
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