how does one live on min wage?

[statisticsnerd]

I have an aunt who has lived on minimum wage or just a couple of dollars above it for most of her adult life. She has a cheap crappy apartment, a roommate, and a beat up old Volvo.

It CAN be done, but you won't be living a comfortable lifestyle by any means.

Nonetheless, it's much better than what people in third world countries have.

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by statisticsnerd

I have an aunt who has lived on minimum wage or just a couple of dollars above it for most of her adult life. She has a cheap crappy apartment, a roommate, and a beat up old Volvo.

It CAN be done, but you won't be living a comfortable lifestyle by any means.

Nonetheless, it's much better than what people in third world countries have.

Why should we be happy though that we have people living in crappy apartments in dangerous areas. It that what we really want our low income people to have as a standard? We should strive for people to become wealthier not head toward a third world country.

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by Tober138

Spot on.



I guess it beats motivating people to improve their skills and knowledge so that they can be more marketable and, thus, earn more.



Harsh...but true.



No - the purpose of a job is to provide for an exchange of goods / services in which one party compensates another party for performance of a given task or function.

But in that it also is a source for people to live on so what I said is still true. That is why they have a min wage so companies would not exchange goods/service for little to nothing.

[sephiro499]

Originally Posted by matt1984

Why should we be happy though that we have people living in crappy apartments in dangerous areas. It that what we really want our low income people to have as a standard? We should strive for people to become wealthier not head toward a third world country.

Those are the wages of globalism, deflation and lower standards for everyone. I doubt the life of the average Chinese wage slave is much better even with all of the economic development in their country. That increased productivity and associated wealth is stolen by the Fortune 500 and Chinese government.

America can not compete against a government who locks up it's poor working class at night. These are the people making your ipads.

Beijing starts gating, locking poor villages - World news - Asia-Pacific - China - msnbc.com

It's Beijing's latest effort to reduce rising crime often blamed on the millions of rural Chinese migrating to cities for work. The capital's Communist Party secretary wants the approach promoted citywide.

[Soda120]

How does one live on minimum wage? Well, by the skin of their teeth.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by ohiogirl22

I did this as a project in high school. We where in pairs "roommates" who each had a minimum wage job, mind you minimum wage was $5.50 an hour at the time.

We made it work with no savings and sharing a car. And we live in Cleveland which has a very low COL. Also we only ate of the dollar menu at McDonalds. It was actually a really interesting, we had to look in the newspaper for apartments and jobs we where qualified for. Had to look for a used car. We even clipped coupons for items like toilet paper.

I agree that minimum wage is meant to be a "training wage". But depending on where you live you can make it work. Say you make $1000 a month. You have 3 roommates and you split the rent/take the bus/buy the store brand and keep your "fun" money to a minimum. Also living in an inexpensive city I think it could really work. It's when you need the new car/new phone/500 channels of cable/organic free range magical food/new clothes on a weekly basis that you can't survive. What you actually need to survive and what people feel entitled to to live a comfortable life are two completely different things.

I completely agree. Being in the middle or upper class makes you lose touch with reality and forget the meaning of the distinction between a need and a want.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by katestar

Just wondering. I guess you can make it in Fla on $8 an hour, but im seeing that in LA for non-retail jobs also. What do they expect? How do you create loyalty? Thats just above poverty level...

Living in the Closet | NBC New York

monthly (If I had to live on that I would try to go as follows):

Take home pay $1000


Rent $150 - live in someone's closet
Food and Drink $220
Health Insurance $120
Household supplies $30
Clothing $10-20
Cell phone $50
Transportation $70 (bus pass)
Incidentals $50
Retirement savings $100
Unemployment emergency savings $100
Future job search expenses savings $80


An alternative method might involve dumpster hunting and diving, and would work as follows:

Take home pay $1050 ($1000 wages + $50 dumpster diving income)




Rent $400 (You have to look around really hard on craigslist, be patient, the right vacancy may not exist for 1-2 months, but at least you will have a bedroom!!)
Utilities $50 (conserve, conserve, conserve!!!)
Food and Drink $90 (Raw dough will work in place of bread, buy in bulk, grow what you can, add extra vegetable oil for calories. Not healthy, but you will survive as long as you throw in some milk, eggs, nuts, veggies on occasion. Eggs must be cooked to avoid undue salmonella risk)

Health Insurance $120
Supplies $30
Clothing $5 (Get what you can from dumpsters)
Cell phone $10 (prepaid only)
Cell phone depreciation $10
Transportation $20 (live where you can walk to work and shopping, use transit on occasion)
Incidentals $30 (Get secondhand and from dumpsters when possible, barter services with friends and family)
Retirement savings $100
Unemployment emergency savings $100
Future job search expenses savings $80