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And a lot of places in the west especially, the smaller towns will often pay more than expensive metro areas, and have a far lower unemployment rate. A little higher pay, and lower cost of living make a big difference in ability for lower income people to live.
For sure, that is a nice sweet spot to be in. Doesn't happen that often, though. My guess is it happens more in cold weather parts of the West than the warm weather states. It seemed like the wages in AZ were always low when I lived there, even though the unemployment rate was consistently lower than the national average.
If someone is going to work minimum wage jobs, they should avoid living in high cost areas. Live where that money goes a lot farther. Higher minimum wages like the soon-to-be $15 in Seattle is still not enough to offset the cost of housing, people would be a lot better off financially making that $10-12/hour at McD in Montana than $15 in Seattle.
Exactly. As I have said many times in other threads, jacking up the minimum wage in high cost areas doesn't solve the underlying problem of restricted housing supply. That is the true underlying problem in places like Seattle, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, etc. So if you're at the bottom of the wage scale, you will still get outbid for housing (your biggest expense) by everyone else if the supply isn't increased. And as Oldtrader said, it will just increase prices for basic necessities at the retail level and/or automate away more low wage jobs.
Lots of jobs in the major metro areas with relatively low unemployment rates and a very high cost of living pay the bottom fifty percent of the work force about the same pay rate per hour as they would make in lower cost of living towns in the Midwest or the South. For example, the Sears store in Fairfax County VA in the booming high cost DC area pays it's retail staff $8 an hour, the same rate as they pay in small town South Carolina.
If all you can do is work at Sears, why even bother living in those high COL places? Once some of the low wage workers move out and there is a shortage, the imbalance will begin correcting itself.
If all you can do is work at Sears, why even bother living in those high COL places? Once some of the low wage workers move out and there is a shortage, the imbalance will begin correcting itself.
Problem is, that people hear those areas pay high wages, and go there to get them. It is only then they find that the cost of living makes it almost impossible to make a living.
California is the largest state. California has a reputation of paying high wages. The truth is, it has far the highest poverty in the nation, with about 40% of the people living in poverty or near poverty positions.
California for years, has had a negative migration situation between states. More people are moving from California to other states than moving from other states to California. They are growing in numbers fast however, due to immigration and a large portion of that is illegal. Their population growth is from south of the American border, and from Asia. A large portion of the new growth is illegal immigrants. This feeds the low pay jobs, and places demand in growth for everything from jobs to housing.
So the idea that low paid people will leave the state, so their will be a labor shortage and bring up wages, just does not prove to be valid. It is really the other way around.
If all you can do is work at Sears, why even bother living in those high COL places? Once some of the low wage workers move out and there is a shortage, the imbalance will begin correcting itself.
I agree, but the low wage workers never seem to move out of the expensive metro areas in large enough numbers.
I do think illegal immigration is part of this problem in places like California. They will put up with conditions native born people won't. And business and government alike want it that way. Democrats want votes and Republicans want cheap labor. Globalists want the sovereignty of nation states to be watered down to nothing. The vast majority of citizens (as well as illegal immigrants) are left holding the bag and are played off each other as pawns in this game.
Problem is, that people hear those areas pay high wages, and go there to get them. It is only then they find that the cost of living makes it almost impossible to make a living.
California is the largest state. California has a reputation of paying high wages. The truth is, it has far the highest poverty in the nation, with about 40% of the people living in poverty or near poverty positions.
California for years, has had a negative migration situation between states. More people are moving from California to other states than moving from other states to California. They are growing in numbers fast however, due to immigration and a large portion of that is illegal. Their population growth is from south of the American border, and from Asia. A large portion of the new growth is illegal immigrants. This feeds the low pay jobs, and places demand in growth for everything from jobs to housing.
So the idea that low paid people will leave the state, so their will be a labor shortage and bring up wages, just does not prove to be valid. It is really the other way around.
The thing about the good parts of CA, and many other wealthy states, is that they have basically become places for the well to do and educated.
The downside of cheaper CoL places is that you have to live there. I'm from Texas and my home state is in love with strip malls, Chinese buffets and dollar stores. You can get a house hella cheap though.
Many are only there, because once they realize the low wage problem, they do not have the money to move out of the area. It takes money to relocate.
They'd probably be better off spending the money to do so, but that is the psychological trap of poverty for you.
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