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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.
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