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OP, it depends very much on which part of the country you live in. The cost of living here in northwest Indiana is much lower than it is on the west or east coast, for example. As another poster wrote, $15 to $20 an hour would be a good wage around here and you could easily pay for a modest house, nice car, utilities and groceries at the lower end of that scale.
It also depends on what you consider "livable." I'm fairly frugal, though I have spent quite a bit of moolah on travels over the past several years. For the most part, I splurge on something only after I've saved up for it. If you buy a lot of things on credit or blow your money on a lot of stuff you don't really need instead of saving over the years, then you probably wouldn't feel that $15 or $20 an hour is enough.
I live about an hour's drive from downtown Chicago, and I'm sure I wouldn't be able to live decently in the city for less than $30 an hour ($62,400 annually).
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Hold on thou whats your lifestyle
Are you married or have kids or are you single?
Do you have any debt?
Do you have any expensive hobbies?
And do you live in an apartment or a house?
Im curious to know since's that a high livable wage for Chicago you posted.
Minimum Wage jobs should be well MINIMUM
and Livable Wage jobs should be well LIVABLE
You really can't kill people I mean killing people is against human rights then.
Limiting Population can help but that be really hard to enforce since America is a Free Country.
When Livable wages allow you live, people will spend more money increasing profits, creating jobs, inspiring minimum workers to aspire better marketable skills that pay livable wages while improving the economy and services..
People need to be paid what they are worth.
If they raise minimum wage to 15 an hour
Raise that College Entry level Salary to 30 an hour.
Ask yourself this
If a burger flipper gets paid 15 an hour for his job while you went to college for 4 years did internships, gain experience and come out of an Office/Trade Job for 20 an hour? How would you feel the imbalance of some mediocre burger flipper making almost amount the same as you?
Some one sure needs to pay me what im worth because by that time 20 dollars an hour isn't gunna be worth crap as the economy loves to raise prices on everything
You make a good point there. I do believe that the current minimum wage is too low but if the minimum wage gets raised to $15 an hour. The entry level school teacher, police officer, chemist, accountant, and store manager trainee making $18 an hour wages needs to double as well to make it fair across the board. If the minimum wage doubles in all 50 states and the fry cook at McDonald's makes $15 an hour. Does that mean the shift managers pay suppose to go from $15 an hour to $30 an hour because the higher skill set. My aunt is a department manager at Walmart and she said when Walmart increased the starting minimum wage of all Walmart employees to $9 an hour back in April only the cashiers and sales associates got raises but the department managers/customer service managers only making a couple more dollars per hour than the entry level workers did not get a raise. I wonder if they raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and all other workers currently making $15 or more per hour do not get a raise then in that case you are right. There would be no incentive to go to college if you can make a living wage with an unskilled job. Everyone would quit their higher stress/responsibility job for a cashier/fry cook job because it is less stress and responsibility and people would stop going to college.
"In the end, the responsibility has to be on the individual to better prepare him/herself to make a better wage."
And that's just a cop-out - abrogating your portion of responsibility for the society that we've collectively crafted.
And that's where the seas part. Expecting someone to work hard, contribute, and get educated is a cop out?
I grew up in a single-parent home after losing my father at a young age. I worked full time and went to community college. I read books, gravitated toward smart people, asked a lot of questions and made a lot of mistakes.
But I kept working hard. I pushed carts, loaded trucks, and cleaned offices and houses. I finished school, got a job, worked my way up, and made a great life for myself.
I have some rather liberal opinions for such a staunch conservative. I support welfare (temporarily), unemployment (temporarily), and even housing and childcare assistance (temporarily).
I even support a labor department that points people in the right direction to better themselves to help those that may not have had a good upbringing.
I will never support our government holding a gun to privately run business and telling them to pay a $20.-per-hour wage to a $10.-per-hour position.
And that's just a cop-out - abrogating your portion of responsibility for the society that we've collectively crafted.
We did not collectively craft anything. With all due respect, some sat on their asses while others contributed. They can get with the program or make minimum wage, period.
OP, it depends very much on which part of the country you live in. The cost of living here in northwest Indiana is much lower than it is on the west or east coast, for example. As another poster wrote, $15 to $20 an hour would be a good wage around here and you could easily pay for a modest house, nice car, utilities and groceries at the lower end of that scale.
It also depends on what you consider "livable." I'm fairly frugal, though I have spent quite a bit of moolah on travels over the past several years. For the most part, I splurge on something only after I've saved up for it. If you buy a lot of things on credit or blow your money on a lot of stuff you don't really need instead of saving over the years, then you probably wouldn't feel that $15 or $20 an hour is enough.
I live about an hour's drive from downtown Chicago, and I'm sure I wouldn't be able to live decently in the city for less than $30 an hour ($62,400 annually).
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You would need to make $30 an hour to live Intown Chicago if you want to live in a safe/decent neighborhood. If you are living in the projects you could get by with $15 an hour.
Inner city Atlanta requires about $20 an hour if you want to live in the good neighborhoods (candler park, midtown, Atlantic station, highlands) $50 an hour for the exclusive Atlanta neighborhoods (Buckhead and Dunwoody) and for the housing projects in Atlanta (Bankhead and Joyland Park) you can make it on $14 an hour. In my Atlanta surburb 25 miles north of inner city Atlanta you can afford a decent apartment and all the other basic necessities on $15-16 an hour. So yes, it's location, location, location that defines a living wage.
What I mean is If McDonalds or Staples pays everyone a livable wage what would be the point of College or Trade schools then? Why go when you can make a livable wage off a minimum wage job? That would cause a big mess for College Grads if they are a couple dollars apart from the unskilled burger flipper. WHy go then?
I would bet a lot of people would get that Mindset.
I understand someone needs to do those jobs but those jobs are mostly meant for college students surely not meant to raise a family
There is a big difference between affording the basics and having enough to have the little extras everyone wants. Do you really think the kind of people who want to go to college and have a comfortable living would settle for 'livable' if there is a better alternative? Those extras are what motivate people now and I don't see that changing, even if the bottom rung moves up enough to get off welfare if they work.
Those that can move up already do, those that can't ...well I don't really see that changing too much so why put them in the position of having to rely on handouts to make ends meet.
It kills me how people spout off that the easy answer is for people to increase their skills and make themselves more marketable. Do you guys really interact much with some of the people in those low wage jobs? The college students, and those who want more than the bare basics (which is most people) WILL move up, but many other people can't because they simply aren't capable of it.
I have some rather liberal opinions for such a staunch conservative. I support welfare (temporarily), unemployment (temporarily), and even housing and childcare assistance (temporarily).
I even support a labor department that points people in the right direction to better themselves to help those that may not have had a good upbringing.
I will never support our government holding a gun to privately run business and telling them to pay a $20.-per-hour wage to a $10.-per-hour position.
That's my view. For able-bodied people, I fully support a generous temporary safety net.
I have a big problem with our public policy that has created a permanent underclass where the males land in prison as they come of age and the females with no education and no career track pop out children.
With minimum wage, the minimum wage in 1968 was, inflation-adjusted, $10.25. I have no problem with that and indexing it to inflation. I'd have specific exclusions for teens and unemployed people entering the workforce. That's not a livable wage but people are expected to improve themselves so they're valuable enough as an employee to justify paying them more money. You can't just hand unmotivated slugs $25.00/hour.
There is a big difference between affording the basics and having enough to have the little extras everyone wants. Do you really think the kind of people who want to go to college and have a comfortable living would settle for 'livable' if there is a better alternative? Those extras are what motivate people now and I don't see that changing, even if the bottom rung moves up enough to get off welfare if they work.
Those that can move up already do, those that can't ...well I don't really see that changing too much so why put them in the position of having to rely on handouts to make ends meet. It kills me how people spout off that the easy answer is for people to increase their skills and make themselves more marketable. Do you guys really interact much with some of the people in those low wage jobs? The college students, and those who want more than the bare basics (which is most people) WILL move up, but many other people can't because they simply aren't capable of it.
Thats just a lame excuse. Anyone is capable of anything if they put and set their mind into it.
Why should unmotivated unskilled kids be handed freely 25 dollars an hour for 40 hours a week?
Nothing is handed easily in this lifetime or anywhere in general. We all have to work hard where we need to be.
You don't even need higher education, you just need ambitions and skills.
If your in Retail you get customer and sales skills which can be transferable into another jobs or better paying ones.
A high school grad may not be worth as much as before back in the days but they can break into another industry THERES ALWAYS A WAY
Why wouldn't someone be capable of it anyways?
OH WOE is me the job is too tough theres too much competition, I don't have enough money if you don't well get government assistance, have your family support you, take two or 3 jobs, apply for financial aid,
Yea simply aren't capable of it just sounds all whiny and just full of excuses.
But I sure am and will never stay in a minimum wage job.
Life is not a candyland we wish it was easy but reaching the comfy stage of life takes some sort of efforts.
It shows $11.19 for King County, WA. That's only $1.72 over the state minimum wage, and 0.19 less than the minimum wage in Seattle which is now at $11.00 on the way up to $15 eventually in phases. So that means according to the chart that people making minimum wage in Seattle are already making a "living wage" despite the average rent of $1,615 for one bedroom? That $11.19/hour comes out to $1,790/month, so after rent they would have $175 left for everything else.
I could find somewhere to live in King County for much less than $1,615 though. It's a living wage, not a wage that entitles you to an average standard of living. Finding a room to rent shouldn't run more than $600 in Seattle, leaving $1,000 left for everything else. You can certainly pay much more than that for a nicer place in the more expensive neighborhoods but again, living not average.
Thats just a lame excuse. Anyone is capable of anything if they put and set their mind into it.
So I'll ask again, how often do you really interact with the 'lifers' in minimum wage positions? I work in retail so I get a lot of interaction. There are those who are slackers, could do better but are content skating by, but there are also many who don't have what it takes to 'do better' in school or work at a skilled trade. Do you really want some guy who can't pass a ninth grade competency test do the wiring or plumbing on your house? What DO you want to do with those people?
And I'm not saying people need to be handed all the comforts either, but if someone IS working full time they shouldn't have to live without the basics because companies are more interested in their shareholders than they are in their employees.
I love to hear what people nowadays here consider a livable wage
In the retail thread that was posted this got me curious.
Because some people says that some jobs or most jobs don't pay a livable wage so i want to hear from the City Data Member here what is your definition of a livable wage? How much must it pay? the hours worked? Should it have benefits?
My definition of a livable wage for Employment
is 20 Dollars an hour and up with Health Benefits and 40 to 45 hours of work.
This should be enough for rent as well as a decend amount left for savings and going out or whatevers
I can get by anywhere with this wage even in LA
I wont be rich but I will live and not be hungry on it and I am a single person
Depends on the geographic area, because of the cost of living differences.
I'd say $15/hr for a 40 hr work week would suffice. That's over $31k a yr gross. A person can pay for the necessities of life and make it with that, w/o having to turn to food stamps. No expendable income, of course.
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