$15 minimum wage...I know I'm poking the bear, but...

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I've been taught a reasonable budget for your net income will be about like:

30% housing and utilities
25% food and hygiene
10% savings/emergency fund
10% transportation
10% entertainment/luxury
10% other tangibles (clothing, furniture, dishes, computer etc)
5% medical

Good luck trying to maintain that in America, even WITH Insurance. Doctors and prescriptions are expensive.

[Andara Bledin]

Good luck trying to maintain that in America, even WITH Insurance. Doctors and prescriptions are expensive.

My insurance costs about $100/month, and prescriptions are $7/each for generics, with a $20 copay for visits.

If you make $15/hour, which is where MW should be, then that's about $2400/month, which is right around the 5% mark for standard office visits for those without medical issues.

Also, Kaiser has a really robust financial assistance department for both the insured and uninsured alike. Nekojin (the hubby) had an emergency last year that they covered 100% over the course of six months despite him being notably above the poverty line.

[NecCat]

Never occurred to me, I've only done financial planning information in Canada.

With my benefits at work my prescriptions are covered 80% until I've spent $250 for the year, then I pay $2.10 for each additional prescription for the rest of the year. As far as doctors, in the last 10 years I think I've only spent around $1000 total for things that aren't covered by provincial insurance or work benefits (fibreglass casts, my sons circumcision, paying for internet and cable in hospital). If it's considered necessary, insurance covers it. As I understand it, that's pretty standard across the country.

[Rageaholic]

and just read a particularly condescending article* against it, writer's reasoning "it took *me* until I was 26 to earn that much, and if you get it starting out it's not fair, all *my* effort will have been wasted" (he also throws in that other jobs have more "value" to society, and since those "valued" jobs make less it's not fair to them-though I see no argument about teachers making less than celebrities of any flavor.) He also thinks it's just awful to have to be in the same tax bracket as the "plebes", and that the only reason people choose hard jobs is for higher wages(effort vs. reward means no one will want to be EMTs if they make the same as a sandwich artist-sounds like projection to me, the EMTs and firefighters** I know DON'T do it for the pay, they do it because they want to help people.)

Matt Walsh... can't say I'm surprised. He has no respect for minimum wage workers. A while back, he made a some rant on Walmart workers. He made an asshole tweet and then responded to one of those who called him out on it. He essentially said that the shit wages the employee makes (wages that require him to still be on assistance) is Walmart being generous. This was followed by some long winded "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mantra.

This is coming from a guy who makes a living spouting bullshit on the internet. Not that I have a problem with those making a living that way (quite the opposite actually), but you'd think they would be less likely to judge those who have to work crappy jobs to support themselves.

[Jetfire]

Yeah the "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" argument makes no sense to me.

How is someone supposed to improve themselves when they need to work 60+ hours a week at minimum wage just to survive?

I fully support MW at a survivable level. The breakdown outlined above makes sense; at a minimum someone making MW should be able to work 40 hours a week and be above the poverty line for the local area. Anything else, and it's not doing its job IMO. (The fact that people may not get 40h/week is another issue).

When you're not working poor, then you have the time and the flexibility to start improving yourself and bootstrapping yourself up further (or to recover if you happened to get knocked down). The system needs greasing, and the current MW levels are leaving the gears of the economy ungreased.

I get the feeling a lot of the people protesting the lack of increase don't have a proper sense of how inflation has gone on in the past decades. Most every other staple someone would need to buy has almost doubled in cost just in my (30-some year) lifetime. MW should reflect that as well.

[KellyHabersham]

I'd be interested to know how this would apply to government jobs.....among other things, $15 is a few dollars more than what I make, and I'm at the top/last pay step for my position.

[Aragarthiel]

Yeah the "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" argument makes no sense to me.

Me neither. Most of these people say "Just go to college" but college costs money and not everyone can get financial aid or scholarships. Not to mention, there's admissions fees, books, gas to get there, parking permits, school supplies, etc. I mentioned to a guy once who was berating a lady for being online and on food stamps that maybe she had internet for taking online classes. His response? Something along the lines of "Online classes don't count, get a job."

I personally do not have a job for several reasons. The biggest one is that I don't know how to drive and I have nobody to teach me (Hubby's scared of my driving). Then there's the fact that nobody will hire someone who can't drive and has never had a job before for more than minimum wage, and working for minimum wage will actually worsen our living conditions. I'd rather stay home with my daughter and teach her things she wouldn't get to learn at a daycare, and work on enrolling in online classes so when I do learn to drive and get my degree, I can try for something that makes more than minimum wage.

[Andara Bledin]

I'd be interested to know how this would apply to government jobs.....among other things, $15 is a few dollars more than what I make, and I'm at the top/last pay step for my position.

Just like any other position, it would push the bottom level up to $15, and any level above that would be at the discretion of the employer to set.

Since government positions are typically set at multiple levels based on skill and position, I would be unsurprised if everything were pushed up either linearly or, less likely, proportionally.

[Rageaholic]

Yeah the "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" argument makes no sense to me.

How is someone supposed to improve themselves when they need to work 60+ hours a week at minimum wage just to survive?

Some of these talking heads have actually suggested living homeless. This one clown said he did go homeless and refused to take "government handouts" out of principle, and suggested everyone else do the same.

I wish I was making this up.

[Panacea]

Yeah the "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" argument makes no sense to me.

How is someone supposed to improve themselves when they need to work 60+ hours a week at minimum wage just to survive?

The whole "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" argument relies on a myth that has never really existed in this country.

Yes, many people have done extraordinary things, created wealth from nothing. Their success was a combination of the right things happening at the right times, the right opportunities, the right connections, and a non insubstantial amount of luck.

It is the exception not the rule, and that's why we celebrate the self made man myth so much.

Most of us will never, can never, achieve such lofty heights. And it's become an excuse to screw over people and blame them for their inability to overcome insurmountable odds.

It's bullshit.

[Rageaholic]

It is the exception not the rule, and that's why we celebrate the self made man myth so much.

Quoted for truth.

Failing to realize this sets us all up for failure.

[BlaqueKatt]

Matt Walsh... can't say I'm surprised.

well thankfully someone more eloquent than I am rebutted him
And in doing so makes him look like a total ass by paraphrasing.

The reaction by some of the fast food workers’ fellow Americans has been condescending, if not vitriolic.

[Andara Bledin]

As usual, the rampant ignorance in the comment section (mostly out of young white males... quel suprise) is cringe-worthy.

[Hyena Dandy]

All the people who make those comments of "It sucks, but that's how it is." Well of course it's how it is, no-one thinks it isn't. But they're trying to make it NOT suck.

[BlaqueKatt]

All the people who make those comments of "It sucks, but that's how it is." Well of course it's how it is, no-one thinks it isn't.

It's like the concept of changing things so they don't suck, is lost because "it's not fair, I had to suffer the suck so should everyone else."

Instead of.

My gosh, that sucked, no one should have to go through that, it was awful, let's change that immediately.


It's almost rose colored nostalgia. They look back on the suck and their life seems better now, but if it changes now their suck will look worse, and they've lost the ability to gloat, and are afraid someone else may gloat. Which isn't likely because they aren't awful people.