Padawanbater2
Well-Known Member
This is from Reddit, I didn't write it, but I was wondering what opponents of raising the minimum wage would have to say about it;
I recently did some math about the minimum wage. Assuming you live a normal American life as should be expected of anybody that works full time, it's impossible to live off of the minimum wage. Here's my long stupid post:
I'm going to evaluate the possibility of living on a full-time minimum wage job while adhering to the standard expected expenses of a functional American citizen. Math will be involved.
NOTE: I'm including luxuries like health insurance and a car, because A: It's impossible to work full time in many areas of the country without a car, and B: Somebody that works 40 hours a week at any job should be seen as an average American citizen. I'm not going to strip a person of insurance just because they work for McDonald's.
OTHER NOTE: I'm basing these expenses either on previous yearly averages, or on my own (pretty awesome) expenses. I'm erring on the side of cheapness with everything, so this is essentially a cost analysis for a white 26-year-old male with a spotless driving record and cheap/ideal living conditions.
Alright. You work 2080 hours a year (full time, no vacation or sick days) in a job that pays $7.25 with no benefits. You make $15,080 in that year.
You have $12,194 remaining.
You have $11,194 remaining.
You have $4,394 remaining.
We'll say you're going super-thrifty, so the cost for food (yes, I'm including luxuries like milk, animal proteins, cooking essentials, and some fresh vegetables): $2,400/yr. Or, $200 a month. Or $6.57 a day.
You have $1994 remaining.
Using this, average miles driven for a 20-34 year old is 15,098/year. Let's say your car gets an amazing 29 MPG, that's 521 gallons of gas. Current avg. unleaded gas price:$3.25. (which is reasonably low): $1,693.
You have $301 remaining.
So to reiterate. If you work full time every week of the year, you have ideal life insurance, ideal car insurance, ideal living situation, you eat frugal yet healthy, you never drink or smoke, your car has amazing MPG, and you live in a place with reasonably low gas prices, and nothing unexpected happens... you're left with $301.
Which you spend on renter's insurance: $144/year Avg.
Basic Hygiene (TP, PT's, Soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.): $25x12: $300. (Avg. Expenses are higher, considerably so if you're a woman with standards of beauty that must be maintained {and periods}, and even more if you're a black woman with standards of white woman beauty that must be maintained {and periods}. Straight hair is not cheap for black women.)
Yearly car registration fee (In VA): $79.
You now have -$222 to spend on treating yourself!
And this is in an apartment with no cable, no internet access, no housephone, no cellphone, no pay-as-you-go phone, no furniture, no car payments, no car maintenance, no car inspection, no silverware, no dishes, no pots, no pans, no microwave, no toaster, no entertainment at all, no children, no pets, no leisure activities, no household cleaning products, no tools, no bank fees and no check-for-cash fees, no credit cards, no sheets, no pillows, no blankets, no bed, no laundry, no clothes, no cosmetics, no first aid, no fucking napkins, nothing.
So...
TL;DR: If you live alone in a barren apartment and do nothing other than work and eat cheap meals, with absolutely ideal settings and absolutely no unexpected expenses... you're $222 dollars in the hole.
So what we're looking at is a system where the government spends more than 131 Billion dollars a year on "entitlements," of which more than 9/10ths is spent on the Elderly, Disabled, and Employed. Meaning that we either have to accept the nature of "the welfare state" or accept that these mega-corporations should shoulder some of the social burden and pay their employees a rate at or above the standard of living.
In this scenario, it is either/or. By simply opposing both, as is the official stance of the Republican party, self-identifying conservatives, and conservative Libertarians, only serves to hold back an inevitable tide. Living wage is only going to continue to go up as the value of the dollar continues to steadily drop, meaning that welfare spending is only going to continue adding to the dreaded deficit. The longer this goes on, the worse it gets and the worse it will be when the whole infrastructure in place collapses under the weight of it all, which will inevitably happen.
Supplemental: The median net compensation in this country is $27,519 , meaning that half of America's workforce makes at or under $13.23 an hour. 77 million people make an hourly wage somewhere between $2.25 and $13.23. It's not just about those exactly-minimum-wage employees, that is half of our workforce living paycheck to paycheck within $5 of the legally-enforced minimum.
We don't have to live this way. We don't have to punish people for working in the service industry. They make our lives better, why is there such a bitter argument about whether or not functional members of society actually working for a living should be able to afford the basic necessities in place to live a normal American life?
http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1s8kxx/im_sure_this_will_be_unpopular_on_here_but_this/cdv4g2b
(sources cited in OP on Reddit)
I recently did some math about the minimum wage. Assuming you live a normal American life as should be expected of anybody that works full time, it's impossible to live off of the minimum wage. Here's my long stupid post:
I'm going to evaluate the possibility of living on a full-time minimum wage job while adhering to the standard expected expenses of a functional American citizen. Math will be involved.
NOTE: I'm including luxuries like health insurance and a car, because A: It's impossible to work full time in many areas of the country without a car, and B: Somebody that works 40 hours a week at any job should be seen as an average American citizen. I'm not going to strip a person of insurance just because they work for McDonald's.
OTHER NOTE: I'm basing these expenses either on previous yearly averages, or on my own (pretty awesome) expenses. I'm erring on the side of cheapness with everything, so this is essentially a cost analysis for a white 26-year-old male with a spotless driving record and cheap/ideal living conditions.
Alright. You work 2080 hours a year (full time, no vacation or sick days) in a job that pays $7.25 with no benefits. You make $15,080 in that year.
- Average basic health insurance cost/year in 2011 (it's currently higher): $2,196.
You have $12,194 remaining.
- We'll say the average car insurance cost/year: $1000 (That's cheap.)
You have $11,194 remaining.
- We'll go with this estimate for cost of housing/year (it's from 2008, housing costs are higher now): $6,800, or $566/month (including utilities).
You have $4,394 remaining.
We'll say you're going super-thrifty, so the cost for food (yes, I'm including luxuries like milk, animal proteins, cooking essentials, and some fresh vegetables): $2,400/yr. Or, $200 a month. Or $6.57 a day.
You have $1994 remaining.
Using this, average miles driven for a 20-34 year old is 15,098/year. Let's say your car gets an amazing 29 MPG, that's 521 gallons of gas. Current avg. unleaded gas price:$3.25. (which is reasonably low): $1,693.
You have $301 remaining.
So to reiterate. If you work full time every week of the year, you have ideal life insurance, ideal car insurance, ideal living situation, you eat frugal yet healthy, you never drink or smoke, your car has amazing MPG, and you live in a place with reasonably low gas prices, and nothing unexpected happens... you're left with $301.
Which you spend on renter's insurance: $144/year Avg.
Basic Hygiene (TP, PT's, Soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.): $25x12: $300. (Avg. Expenses are higher, considerably so if you're a woman with standards of beauty that must be maintained {and periods}, and even more if you're a black woman with standards of white woman beauty that must be maintained {and periods}. Straight hair is not cheap for black women.)
Yearly car registration fee (In VA): $79.
You now have -$222 to spend on treating yourself!
And this is in an apartment with no cable, no internet access, no housephone, no cellphone, no pay-as-you-go phone, no furniture, no car payments, no car maintenance, no car inspection, no silverware, no dishes, no pots, no pans, no microwave, no toaster, no entertainment at all, no children, no pets, no leisure activities, no household cleaning products, no tools, no bank fees and no check-for-cash fees, no credit cards, no sheets, no pillows, no blankets, no bed, no laundry, no clothes, no cosmetics, no first aid, no fucking napkins, nothing.
So...
TL;DR: If you live alone in a barren apartment and do nothing other than work and eat cheap meals, with absolutely ideal settings and absolutely no unexpected expenses... you're $222 dollars in the hole.
So what we're looking at is a system where the government spends more than 131 Billion dollars a year on "entitlements," of which more than 9/10ths is spent on the Elderly, Disabled, and Employed. Meaning that we either have to accept the nature of "the welfare state" or accept that these mega-corporations should shoulder some of the social burden and pay their employees a rate at or above the standard of living.
In this scenario, it is either/or. By simply opposing both, as is the official stance of the Republican party, self-identifying conservatives, and conservative Libertarians, only serves to hold back an inevitable tide. Living wage is only going to continue to go up as the value of the dollar continues to steadily drop, meaning that welfare spending is only going to continue adding to the dreaded deficit. The longer this goes on, the worse it gets and the worse it will be when the whole infrastructure in place collapses under the weight of it all, which will inevitably happen.
Supplemental: The median net compensation in this country is $27,519 , meaning that half of America's workforce makes at or under $13.23 an hour. 77 million people make an hourly wage somewhere between $2.25 and $13.23. It's not just about those exactly-minimum-wage employees, that is half of our workforce living paycheck to paycheck within $5 of the legally-enforced minimum.
We don't have to live this way. We don't have to punish people for working in the service industry. They make our lives better, why is there such a bitter argument about whether or not functional members of society actually working for a living should be able to afford the basic necessities in place to live a normal American life?
http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1s8kxx/im_sure_this_will_be_unpopular_on_here_but_this/cdv4g2b
(sources cited in OP on Reddit)
