Here's why the $10hr here doesn't pay the bills. (employment, unemployment, paycheck)

[CampingMom]

Good article in our local paper today. Shows exactly why someone around here considered entry level at "$10hr" can't afford to live here. Survey: Valley rents are outrunning paychecks | The Poughkeepsie Journal | poughkeepsiejournal.com

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.

[chiroptera]

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.

[TKramar]

Works fine here. I can support two on that...on less than that even.

What it means is that your area is overpriced.

[Hemlock140]

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.

[littleelvis]

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.

[imsh0t]

blame it on other people being able to afford it. Rents only go up because people can actually afford it, and its in demand.

[slackjaw]

If you are single you just need a roommate or two.

[pvande55]

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."

[snofarmer]

Lower your overhead.

Not every job is going to allow you to live in a 5 bed room home, drive a sports car, truck, and a suv or have 2nd home.

If you drive up wages you drive up the cost of everything then your right back where you started,

Not every job is meant to to support a family or even one person. Supporting yourself is up to you not a job or the wage it pays.

Do you feel entitled to a higher wage just because you can't buy the things you want.

How much should you get paid to flip burgers?

[wheelsup]

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!