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So in some parts of the country that may be doable. Reality here is that it's not going to pay your rent-food-gas, etc. As someone who owns their house-I am lucky-I don't have the mortgage anymore. But I am still short paying the bills on $10hr and have to decide which ones I pay and which ones are late. It is also why more than 3/4 of the people I work with are on Section 8 housing, food stamps and using food banks to feed their families.
Just thought I'd show everyone the comparrison to other parts of the country.
Eek! That's a lot for rent...I live in SE Michigan a little north of Flint and property or rentals are very, very cheap here - even in decent areas. (There are some very nice, upscale areas here too.) About a third of what's posted in that article. Actually property values are so low here that in my opinion it's cheaper to own than to rent...the few people I know who are renting do so because they can't qualify for any kind of mortgage.
On the other hand, my brother lived in NYC for a year in 2008-2009 and was paying about $2,000 a month for a one bedroom apartment in Harlem. It was pretty nice, but I cannot comprehend spending that much on rent! I suppose it's all relative, though. He was making good money, obviously. And he didn't own a car, which freed up a chunk of expense.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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That's considerably less than rent here, where people making $10/hour are forced to have roomates to afford a decent place to live. On the other hand not that many jobs paying that little, with minimum wage $8.67 so even a newbie at McDonalds makes that.
What I find interesting is that in the whole article it mentions nothing about being able to afford it if you got a second job. Now don't everyone go down the whole road of "its hard enough to find one job".
I would agree it would be difficult to afford that on $10/hr. However many people work more than 40hrs a week. It can be a matter of will power.
That is the problem with official reports on poverty. They fail to take into account regional differences in cost of living. As one pointed out, in Flint you can do all right on $10/hr. But certainly not within 50 miles of NYC. As a recruiter told me years ago, "Just because you pay 300K for a 100K house there does not mean they pay you three times as much."
You really can't deny that wages have not risen with inflation. That is the key. A decade ago I was making $10/hr in high school stocking groceries, there were people there making $12-$13/hr as full time adults able to afford a used car, apartment, etc. on their income. Now their income is still the same but hosing costs have almost doubled in the same time period, same with car insurance, food, etc.
Same goes for when I worked at Pizza Hut, a lot of the drivers lived on their own and did that as their primary job. The Shift Managers made decent money ($12-$14/hr) and also lived on their own. Now you need a second job above and beyond. No wonder our unemployment rate is still high!
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