What is the Best City to live in, if you made only minimum wage? (best neighborhoods, apartments)
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On a recent cross country trip I enjoyed looking at the real-estate section of the local newspapers. I could not believe how cheap it was to rent an apartment or buy a nice home in most of the country in comparison to the urban cities of the Northeast or California. I saw nice homes for $130,000 and two bedroom apartments for $550 a month.
If both members of a family worked full time for $6.00 an hour that would give them about $2000 a month in income more than enough for rent, food, utilities and a car in most small towns. Put them in NYC and they would be homeless.
I thought that if I were retired or living on minimum wage I could survive in these places, especially if I did not own two cars or drive around to much. If a married couple was working two full time minimum wage jobs in small town TN or AL, they could get along just fine. If a married couple was working for minimum wage in Washington DC they would be homeless.
What is the Best City to live in, if you made only minimum wage?
Last edited by questioner2; 12-30-2007 at 11:58 AM..
Honestly, I didn't even think you could live on minimum wage. The only way you could is if you work atleast 2 jobs 80 hours a week. In that case, you don't really live at all. You just at work all the time.
I don't know about minimum wage, but plenty of people in the Youngstown-Warren area make $8-10/hr and are surviving. How i don't know, but it's happening. We also have the cheapest housing in the country. Also, as long as you don't live in bad areas of Y-town the quality of life is pretty good. There are plenty of cultural things to do in the area and w/in an hours drive (cleveland and pittsburgh). Although, if you are making min. wage you probably couldn't afford to do those things. There are free things to take advantage of though. www.bulterart.com (broken link) is free, the Warren Community Amphitheater http://www.warren.org/riverwalk.htm provides free movies and music in the summer and I know there are plenty of free events at the http://www.mckinley.lib.oh.us/ in Niles, Ohio.
Probably somewhere in Oklahoma, like Tulsa, Oklahoma City or Guthrie. Housing is really cheap. In Oklahoma City, we saw houses for less than $100,000--not big or in the best neighborhoods, but not bad either.
Minimum wage is different in every state. In CT I think it's 7.75 now...and I'm pretty sure you'd be living under the poverty line working 40 hrs at 7.75. So definitely not CT. I doubt you could even find a studio apt in a bad neighborhood for under $500/month nevermind utilities and food.
In Fort Smith, Arkansas you can get a decent one bedroom apartment for $300 per month. $7-$10 per hour is about standard for wages around here, so the cost of living is centered around that. You couldn't live in any urban area worth living in on minimum wage, and DEFINATELY not in a safe area.
If both members of a family worked full time for $6.00 an hour that would give them about $2000 a month in income more than enough for rent, food, utilities and a car in most small towns. Put them in NYC and they would be homeless.
I thought that if I were retired or living on minimum wage I could survive in these places, especially if I did not own two cars or drive around to much. If a married couple was working two full time minimum wage jobs in small town TN or AL, they could get along just fine. If a married couple was working for minimum wage in Washington DC they would be homeless.
What is the Best City to live in, if you made only minimum wage?
I pretty much did it in Roanoke VA.
Although the gap may be closing on those good deals across the country.
On minimum wage...give me a warm sunbelt city where the weather is not too hot in the summer and where the soup kitchens are well-stocked with food and friendly servers. Housing costs aren't an issue b/c I'm not going to be able to buy a house anywhere on minimium wage. Might as well make it San Diego.
It's really a shame b/c minimum wage does not provide even a minimum subsistence level for one person unless they are getting other housing and food subsidies from the government.
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