Minimum Wage Workers Working 40 Hours A Week Can’t Afford A Two-Bedroom Apartment Anywhere

[MindMover]

During his State of the Union address, President Obama unexpectedly called for a hike in the minimum wage to $9.25 an hour, and Congressional Democrats are calling for an even higher hike to $10.10.

The importance of boosting the minimum wage was highlighted earlier this week when the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released a report showing how difficult it is for low-income Americans to get affordable housing.

The report notes that there is no state in the country where a minimum wage worker working 40 hours a week can afford a two-bedroom apartment for their family. In the cheapest state, a worker would have to work approximately 1.4 jobs to afford such an arrangement, and in Hawaii, a worker would have to work 4.4 jobs at the minimum wage.

The report then follows up with this shocking fact:

http://boldprogressives.org/tag/minimum-wage/

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Like we didn't know this.

[dkf]

1. A person with a college degree would find it hard to raise a family and have a two bedroom apt

On one salary. So do we all deserve a lot more pay? $80,000 minimum wage?

[MindMover]

2. Unless you are in favor of slave owning,

then a livable wage is the only real answer ...

Or maybe you prefer housing people at the factory ...

[Recursion]

4. Or just a guaranteed minimum income

In fact, I'll offer the "job creators" a trade: the minimum wage can be $0 as long as there's a guaranteed minimum income at the Federal poverty line for everyone in the country.

[dkf]

7. So you can never have worked a day in your life and be provided for?

And if comfortable can stay in that condition in perpetuity with all your kids also being comfortable in that condition?

That's a wonderful way to turn an entire line of people into perpetual have nots.

[Recursion]

10. Are we fighting a two ocean war? Why the hell should everybody in the country work?

Is there some service you want done that's going undone, or widget you want made that's going unmade?

What the hell is the point of technology if we still have 70% of the population working 40 hours a week?

[dkf]

13. Then who are the slaves?

[Recursion]

14. The people who think food and shelter should be tied to how much you produce

When there's more than enough to go around just from the people who like producing.

[theKed]

16. Somebody ought to tell

All those wall st bankers that have enough to live on, they don't have to keep trying. And millionaire actors. And sports stars. And congresspeople.

Cause all anyone does is work to support themselves.

[wickerwoman]

20. Yes.

Adequate, safe shelter is a human right and a moral imperative. Or should we just throw disabled people out on the street because they've "never worked a day in their lives".

What you refuse to pay in housing subsidies, you're going to end up paying into the health care system for kids who get pneumonia or legionnaires disease, asbestos and lead exposure, not to mention all the women and kids who would be victims of assault and/or rape living out on the streets. This is assuming your response isn't "screw it, let those kids die".

How productive are those kids going to be in school and in later life going home to damp, moldy apartments where they sleep on the couch with their siblings and there's no electricty for homework or a hot meal at the end of the day?

Every dollar spent on affordable, safe housing brings back $10 to the community in reduced healthcare costs, better school performance and later job productivity, reduced crime and incarceration rates, etc.

[dkf]

5. A single person with no dependents has a lower livable wage.

If people were paid based on their own livable wage then there would be a preference for singles with no kids. Single income with a spouse and kids would price themselves out of the market unless they had skills significantly above those with no kids.

[Recursion]

3. Who the hell can afford a two bedroom apartment on one paycheck?

I make the median income in DC and the idea of my being able to afford a two-bedroom apartment on that is ludicrous. A one bedroom would be doable if I weren't fond of crazy things like eating or owning clothing, but since I like both of those I still have a studio.

[Occulus]

8. And to think: when I was growing up in the 80s, my parents could afford a

TWO BEDROOM HOUSE on one paycheck, sitting on 1/4 acre, WITH money to spare for vacations, camps, AND enough left over to eventually double the size of the house AND have it all paid for, free and clear, by the time I started college!

edit: granted, that wasn't a minimum wage paycheck, but even with a career like my father's, that's become well-nigh impossible...

[Recursion]

12. And in fairness, I'm in DC

If I wanted affordable housing, I should move somewhere else.

[otohara]

6. Back in 76 I worked At Peaches

for minimum wage and had a lovely apt.

This makes me sad for my college grad who lives with roommates and will until he finds a gal and they live together. Of course both will have to have decent paying jobs. Rare these days.

[RoccoR5955]

9. Two bedroom?!?!?!

Heck, they couldn't afford a studio apartment in many places.

[hobbit709]

11. Around here 40 hours at minimum won't even get you an efficiency in a bad neighborhood.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. K&R We have to reconsider what full-time work really is and how the proceeds from it are divided.

The 19th century industrial model hasn't worked for a very long time. We continually increase productivity and invent devices to do the work for us, but we keep the same compensation model. This is an unbalanced system that is doomed to fail no matter how many patches we slap on it.

[freshwest]

17. WA state has the highest. Still not easy to make do on $9.04 an hour.

Example of hourly wages:

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Location=Seattle-WA/Hourly_Rate

Example of salaried compensation:

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Location=Seattle-WA/Salary

I'm told anything less than $4k month is considered lower wage. Minimum wage here means a gross of $1.4K. I know state employees who have to work two and three jobs to make ends meet for their families, and many can't buy a home.

Studios can run $1K or more and the two bedroom apartments can run twice that. Electric is cheap, but everything else costs more. Washington is not a RTW for less state.

People drawing the higher incomes set the market rate for housing. This is a problem in all areas, I suspect.

[madville]

18. It would be tight on what I make

Two bedroom apartments around here are at least $1000 a month, $100 for electric, $50 water/sewer minimum. I make $24 an hour and still have a roommate in a two bedroom apartment. I could survive on half that if I really tightened up but at $8 an hour and 40 hours a week it would be very difficult.

[redqueen]

19. K&R nt

[and-justice-for-all]

21. Not only do companies not want to pay you shit...

they continue to pile on more work without proper compensation for it.

[Nye Bevan]

22. When I had an entry level job in the 80s I could not even afford a 1 BR apartment. (nt)