Following that logic, when I was in highschool, McDonald's paid $3.35 an hour and a hamburger was 50 cents. You could then purchase 6.7 burgers with one hour of pay AND, the burgers were bigger, you got more pickles and more onions.

The McDonald's economic index doesn't take size of bun, burger, and number of pickles and onions into account.

Today, Ontario raised it's minimum wage to $7.75. In Toronto, there is no way you can live on minimum wage (you can, because poeple do it all the time, but it's not much of a life). The cost of living in this city is very high.

Someone here making minimum wage earns about $1240 a month (and that's before all deductions).

Believe it or not in my area places like McDonalds and Wendy's pay more than some assembly and sales jobs. I know the kids working at the Gap get paid less than the McDonalds peoples.

My worst paying job EVER was 6$/hr. starting at Walmart when I was in High School. Even my job before that at Taco Bell I made 7$/hr. Even as a nursing home receptionist on the weekends now I get $8.50 to sit and answer phones, unlock the door to let the vistors out (and keep the old folks in), and read a book. My Mon-Fri job, I make decent money...I can't believe that someone could live on $5.15.

From another thread:

Only 2.8% of American workers above the age of 30 work for minimum wage. These workers generally are not sole wage earners and live with family/parents and have access to supplemental income through the Earned Income Tax Credit.

-Rudey

I don't think that anyone in my neighborhood, or the whole area of where I live for that matter works pay check to pay check. Having a salary is the only way to go. I have never experienced wages, having only dont internships during the summer. That would suck really bad to make that small amount of money though.

Everyone that has said that you cannot live on MW is correct. However, MW isn't meant to support a family/household. MW is for part-time students or temp jobs. This may be something to teach HS students before graduation.
Not to mention here in NC the MW will increase soon and no one sees from the small business point of view that we pay as owners so much in worker's comp and unemployment taxes and cannot afford to pay more and more for the same amount of employees.
Most of the new jobs in this country have come from the small business sector and if MW increases our number of employees will decrease and I don't see how that will benifit anyone.

So basically what most people are saying is that it's rare to receive the minimum wage of 5.15.

The McDonald's index is bullshit...am I the only one willing to point that out? It's ONE example, which does not a trend make. I mean we can easily point to a lot of other things that haven't followed that trend.

Given my sociology background and what I know from the research I've read, I know that the MW is not enough to raise a family...even if you're above the MW by a couple of dollars. But I also realize that there are concrete and very real issues that raising the MW creates without simultaneous holds on the prices of goods.

However, the main problem that exists for the working class is the surprise expenditures like health care that are truly damaging. So one could argue that it's not the MW per se that is the issue, but rather the nature of jobs that pay around that level...

These jobs are often 40 hr/wk, with no health care, no sick/vacation days, and for the working poor are insufficient to support having access to reliable transportation. So if they do get sick or something comes up, what would take someone with a car maybe 45 minutes to do ends up taking 3 or more hours as they wait for buses or try to get cabs or relatives/neighbors to drive them. That of course means they can't work for those three hours, which may mean they don't eat that day, which doesn't help their overall health, etc. Or what usually happens, they don't go to the doctor because they can't afford it, or it's too much of a hassel and so they wait until they are really, really sick and end up in the ER, having to have a lot more work done on them than if they had just gone when the problem first arose.


It's a complex issue, and one that needs to group the working poor in there, rather than just those below the poverty level, mainly because there is plenty of evidence that's been done to show that the poverty level is too low.

Actually, there's plenty of evidence that expectations are too low.

Last week, FEMA was paying for 1100 hotel rooms for evacuees in the Atlanta area. After repeated delays and announcements, yesterday was the final day to pay.

The United Way and others set up hotlines and prepared emergency plans for these people.

They got a total of 6 calls, according to the newspaper.

The moral of the story: When the govt. finally got arround to expecting the evacuees to provide their own housing, damn near every one did.

The working poor has help from the local govt. Anyone not meeting certain standards can apply for WIC and Welfare/Foodstamps.
Again the point of education is what I was trying to make. Before any of us have families we should consider the cost and how can we afford it and if we cannot we need to find a way or a new job or hold off from the idea of family until we can support them.
Not to mention when MW goes up so will the cost of everything including everyday items like milk, so if the cost if living goes up what will it matter if someone makes 2/hour more if they pay more at the counter, there would be no change.

And then can we all hold hands and sing kumbyah??

Seriously, I think the people ending up in the situation that they can't pay for their family either a) did not plan to have a family, it was a "oops" kind of thing or b) had a good job and got fired/layed off/etc and found themself in the situation they are in. I don't think many people purposely plan on having a family they can't support.

Right. So the poor are all waiting until they're 30 to start a family but still keep popping them out because of mistakes.

-Rudey

Maybe they don't know what's causing it.

I thought it was kissing up until last week.

-Rudey

It's not an "oops thing" when you quit school without a degree, insert or allow insertion of a penis without a condom, leave your parents' home without having a real paying job, or quit your job without having a better one lined up.

You are the product of the choices you make. Choose poorly, and your life will surely suck.

And this applies to adults, too, who count on the lottery or Social Security for retirement. Thank God both Wal-Mart and McDonalds hire senior citizens for greeters and counter clerks.