But its minimum wage. Its supposed to be low.
It's supposed to keep people out of poverty, just nosing the line perhaps, but most states attempt to keep the number at 1% difference either side of the line.
- Full-time earnings for minimum wage earners are estimated based on a 40-hour work week and 50 working weeks per year.
- The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, which leads to a full-time minimum wage of $15,080 per year.
- In 2012, the poverty threshold for a single person was $11,945 and $22,283 for a family of four with two children.
Okay. So those numbers work. But these are also national averages. So what about when the local poverty line ISNT at 12k but at 44k? That means a person would need to work FOUR full time jobs, at minimum wage, to still be just hovering above/below the poverty line. That's 160 hours a week. Quite simply? That's not possible. And also why certain high cost of living cities like San Francisco & Seattle have doubled the minimum wage to $15. So a person only has to work 80 hours a week to be at the poverty line*.
Most min wage jobs are for 16 yr olds anyway. How much do we really want tennagers paid? Adults? Get a job that pays more. They are out there. Rural? Work from home. Theres even more of those oppuruntities today.
Nope. Half of all minimum wage jobs in the US are worked by those 25 & over. The other half? Aren't just 16yos! The vast majority of minimum wage jobs aren't worked by teenagers.
What are the characteristics of minimum wage workers? - UC Davis Center for Poverty Research
If it were as easy as "just get a job that pays more" do you reeeeally think we'd be having a crisis of poverty? That cities would be doubling minimum wage, or be requiring people to be 800% below the poverty line (essentially homeless with no assets, including no available credit on credit cards) to receive any kind of aid (the average food stamp distribution in my city? $12 a month. But most people don't even qualify. Even most homeless people). That's how overtaxed our system is. Formerly middle class people have been losing their jobs & homes by the
millions, and have been cobbling together 2,3,4 minimum wage jobs just try into keep their families off the street. The housing in my city? Is starting to look a bit russian. Landlords are fighting to enact laws that limit the number
of families which can live in an apartment. Not roommates. Whole families. Different family in each bedroom. It's not endemic here (no matter how up in arms landlords are, and how much privacy is being invade by random spot checks), as most people are simply leaving the city, moving a few hours away to lower cost of living. Which is creating a different kind of crisis; we have more minimum wage jobs available than you can shake a stick at. Because the workers? Are leaving. And my city is freaking out about that. (And unilaterally ignoring screaming landlords). Because a city can't run on doctors, lawyers, & software engineers alone. Bedroom communities can. But not cities. Small businesses? Can't afford to pay more than minimum wage and stay open. (Large businesses? Won't. They'll just close up that location, and move. Another city problem.) And neither can afford to have zero employees. Because no one will work their job, that doesn't even make 25% of their rent due each month.
It is a HUGE, multifaceted, complex problem. I've listed 3 aspects, and there really are dozens. And that's just minimum wage related.
Most people? Don't want to be poor. Are fighting like hell not to be. No one working 2, 3, 4 minimum wage jobs to make ends meet is suffering from laziness, and despite my periodic bouts of misanthropy most people aren't stupid. If they could work 40 hours making twice or ten times as much? Would in a heartbeat. Are putting themselves through school, saving for certificate programs, working their assess off trying to get better jobs. Huge problem, poverty. Huge.
