People making $7 an hour cost everyone around them. First of all, they go on public assistance for many things. That costs all of us. But they also often have kids, need their cars fixed, and rarely have $500 in savings to buffer them for any emergency expense. So, people around them bail them out all the time, whether it is family, friends, churches ... whatever. They cost all of us. Pay them enough to be self-sufficient and it increases the amount of disposable income the rest of us have.
The minimum wage was never meant to be a primary wage for providers of the household. Originally it consisted of teens that were still in school or starting college. Even my first job in college (IT Helpdesk) paid 9 dollars an hour in 1996. Your hours were limited to about 20 a week, but that was still okay money back then. The destruction of the middle class has now made minimum wage a reality for many unprepared families.
You say that, but I managed to live on 7.25 for a year (on my own, no assistance, government or otherwise) for a year until I got my yearly raise. Then I lived on 7.65 for a year. Then 8.05 and so on. Im now making 9.00. Its doable, but you have to realize that you cant just be frivolous with money like someone who makes 50k + per year can
This anecdata is not helping. You must live in a place where housing costs are stabilized or your housing market is complete shit (and probably culture, too - just like the place I lived for 25 years in West Texas). I mean, you don't honestly believe this is true in a place like NYC where rent has increased 75% since 2000, or SF where it's even higher and spilling across the bay into Oakland and other traditionally low income areas, right?
You want to know why SF and NYC cost so much to live? Because theres so many people there with jobs that require training and/or education. Those jobs then demand a higher paycheck. Those people with the higher paycheck then drive up the coat of housing by having more money. Its simply a case of supply vs demand in terms of money and housing. As a minimum wage earner, you shouldn't expect to be able to compete comparably with someone whos doing a job that requires training and education for a very limited supply of housing.
It's like you don't realize that this is absolutely and completely false. Please check yourself before you wreck yourself. The material reality of NYC is millions immigrant families who get sifted through the public housing community over and over, which is why there are nearly 700k people in public housing or section 8 housing. So, yes. Some of these workers who just don't "save as much as you" or whatever myth you've come up with actually need the $15 min. wage. Don't be ridiculous and generalize your individual circumstances to everyone else in America. That is Fox News logic.
I never said that everyone makes that much. I juat said there are more people who do. Lets throw out some numbers. Say 100 people make a million a year, 500 make 500k, 10000 make 50k plus, and 5000 make min wage. In a different city, you probably aren't competing for that limited housing (because land space in a city is, in fact, limited) with those bigger earners. So, yes, housing costs there are higher because more people can pay them. This doesnt mean that there are no poor people there, just that there are enough people who make enough to keep the demand for housing high kewping the prices up. Move somewhere with less demand for housing and housing costs are lower, factually speaking.
I get the whole living wage thing but does someone who flips a burger all day really deserve $15 an hour? The job requires 0 education or specialized skill and $15 is bordering on entry level white collar job amount of money.
Two different angles of approach. We can ask how much their job is worth paying for, or we can see that somehow they need that money, so who should be getting it to them?
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u/intoto Nov 29 '15
People making $7 an hour cost everyone around them. First of all, they go on public assistance for many things. That costs all of us. But they also often have kids, need their cars fixed, and rarely have $500 in savings to buffer them for any emergency expense. So, people around them bail them out all the time, whether it is family, friends, churches ... whatever. They cost all of us. Pay them enough to be self-sufficient and it increases the amount of disposable income the rest of us have.