I assert that individuals can make it on minimum wage.

[Kellhound]

People without money only have the choices that people with money offer.

There are many choices to be made that lead to higher incomes, even for the poor.

[Total Crica]

There are many choices to be made that lead to higher incomes, even for the poor.

And ALL of those choices are offered by people who have money, not by people who do not have money.

[Felya]

There are many choices to be made that lead to higher incomes, even for the poor.

Indeed, that's why I lock my doors.

[Kellhound]

So their choices are either become a wage slave, become a criminal,or join the military?

Sorry but until we all have a universal income and the people actually have the option to turn them down or we have 100% employment where the job is as replaceable as the employee is to the workers, that is a false choice.

Hardly. Welfare exists to fill the gaps and redistribute wealth already. If you are willing and of at least average intelligence it is possible to increase your job position to well exceed living wage in most places in the US.

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And ALL of those choices are offered by people who have money, not by people who do not have money.

If you include the state as a "person with money" you would be correct.

[Agnar]

If you are talking about the map, I believe they were talking about making enough where your rent only took up a third of your monthly income so you could actually survive on the rest.

Using your estimate of 82.75 hours, that would still mean it took them over 2 week of full time income to pay for 1 month of rent.

That would explain it, guess that's my cue to go to bed, been up for far too long.

[Deleted]

you are reading only part of the conversation, I was well out of min wage before luck became a factor, I am sorry, my convo with other posters ended way off topic.

As others have pointed out, that whole situation was one big lucky break for you, where others where fired on mass you climbed up the ladder. You seem to be unable to see how lucky you where regardless of the hours/work you've put into it.
The fact still remains, there are less jobs then there are people who want a job, so no matter how hard some people will try, they can never find a job that pays a liveable wage.

[Chickat]

Minimum wage should be County wide. Each county of each stats adjusts for living cost of their county. For somewhere like California, 15 or more per hour should be minimum, but in a place like West Virginia or Ohio, 10 is probably more reasonable.

[The Oblivion]

Holly shit! You make 75$ as a compliance manager? Without a BS or 10 years of experience? Dude, did you find a genie lamp? Like I said, every thing you add, just makes your achievements more and more remarkable, not easy.

Im not too far off those relevant experience ranges at this point. My pay is actually low for the position, I took much less then the previous leadership due to having less overall exp. I have stayed mainly because of my flexible schedule. This is not a department of 20. Its a parent company who controls many individual companies. The US govt has mandated that these companies keep an arms length relationship with an internal compliance unit to ensure proper (i.e legal and ethical) loan procedures are followed. We dont want things like 200k balloon loans being called like they were in 2009. Compliance is MASSIVE in all of the largest mortgage companies now due to mandates, lawsuits and overall exposure. 2008 changed the compliance world. It scared mortgage companies like a little kid who got bit by a dog.

[Kellhound]

Indeed, that's why I lock my doors.

I prefer the more honest stealing from the rich and giving to the poor via welfare.

[endersblade]

Utter bullshit

This. I live in Oregon, and while '58' might get by in the more rural areas, in cities like Portland minimum wage will not let you live in a 1 bed anymore. The average price of an apartment that isn't on the outskirts of town is finally breaking the $1,000/m mark. I'm making more than minimum wage at the moment and I had to find a roommate to move in with just so I didn't have to rely on other people to get by. And the shitty part is, the cut-off range for getting food stamps is so low that you can live in a 1-bed apartment, have zero money to spend, and they still won't give you anything because they A) base it on gross rather than net, and B) apparently if you can afford a $1,000 a month apartment, you can also afford food.

Between rent, net, electricity, water/sewage/garbage (which more and more places here are making you pay for), and phone bills, I had on average $23 left at the end of the month. I had to rely on food banks and my parents, because food stamps wouldn't give me shit. Several months I had NOTHING left because of the electricity bill. I lived like this for an entire year, and at the end of my lease was notified that my rent was going up $310. Now I'm in a 2-bed with someone I met 3 days before we got the apartment (and so far we're working out swimmingly) and I have almost $450 of disposable income each month, because the prices of 2-bed apartments isn't going up as much as 1-beds. We're paying $1,263 for a 991 square foot apartment, whereas I was going to be paying $1,310 for a 375 square foot apartment had I not moved.

[Total Crica]

Hardly. Welfare exists to fill the gaps and redistribute wealth already. If you are willing and of at least average intelligence it is possible to increase your job position to well exceed living wage in most places in the US.

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If you include the state as a "person with money" you would be correct.

Yes, anyone with the power to distribute money are "persons with money".

I am not stuck on numbers. My only issue is when people ARE working full time (or can not do so due to disability/lack of work offers), they should be given compensation to ensure their living/work environments are, at the very least, humane by those who have money.

[The Oblivion]

As others have pointed out, that whole situation was one big lucky break for you, where others where fired on mass you climbed up the ladder. You seem to be unable to see how lucky you where regardless of the hours/work you've put into it.
The fact still remains, there are less jobs then there are people who want a job, so no matter how hard some people will try, they can never find a job that pays a liveable wage.

You could be right. Anything is possible. However I have led many friends and family down similar paths (teller into call center into other roles) pretty reliably. The amount of paths you can go from a wells fargo or bank of america (i.e banks) call center is astounding. It becomes a game of titles. Get the best sounding title and move, over, and over, and over.

This is only anecdotal, thats all it can be, but I am confident, I could reliably do the same thing again. Would I be in the exact same role? Maybe not, but I sure wouldnt be stuck at or near min wage.

[kamuimac]

People without money only have the choices that people with money offer.

this is utter bs - they have milion of choice , the acces to information was never as easy as it is in whole history of humnakind - as long and you have acces to internet you have almost infinite possibilities - there are milions of books to learn from , milions of onlince courses to take , milions of oportunities to learn stuff like programing , foreign languages etc etc - its their own fault they spend time after work at wotching stupid comedies or wanking to porn.

[Kellhound]

Yes, anyone with the power to distribute money are "persons with money".

I am not stuck on numbers. My only issue is when people ARE working full time (or can not do so due to disability/lack of work offers), they should be given compensation to ensure their living/work environments are, at the very least, humane by those who have money.

Then you will always complain, because those in power are always the ones making opportunity.

That is the point of welfare.

[kamuimac]

This. I live in Oregon, and while '58' might get by in the more rural areas, in cities like Portland minimum wage will not let you live in a 1 bed anymore. The average price of an apartment that isn't on the outskirts of town is finally breaking the $1,000/m mark. I'm making more than minimum wage at the moment and I had to find a roommate to move in with just so I didn't have to rely on other people to get by. And the shitty part is, the cut-off range for getting food stamps is so low that you can live in a 1-bed apartment, have zero money to spend, and they still won't give you anything because they A) base it on gross rather than net, and B) apparently if you can afford a $1,000 a month apartment, you can also afford food.

Between rent, net, electricity, water/sewage/garbage (which more and more places here are making you pay for), and phone bills, I had on average $23 left at the end of the month. I had to rely on food banks and my parents, because food stamps wouldn't give me shit. Several months I had NOTHING left because of the electricity bill. I lived like this for an entire year, and at the end of my lease was notified that my rent was going up $310. Now I'm in a 2-bed with someone I met 3 days before we got the apartment (and so far we're working out swimmingly) and I have almost $450 of disposable income each month, because the prices of 2-bed apartments isn't going up as much as 1-beds. We're paying $1,263 for a 991 square foot apartment, whereas I was going to be paying $1,310 for a 375 square foot apartment had I not moved.

and what lead you to this sitiation , how did you spend time in school , did you atend uni , or like most of people on minimum wage you spend most of time in high school partying , drinking and picking up chicks only to later realise that "gosh i should have learned like those nerds i bullied instead partying so hard" - 99 % of people who work for minimum wage fucked up their lives themselves.

[Total Crica]

this is utter bs - they have million of choice , the access to information was never as easy as it is in whole history of humankind - as long and you have access to internet you have almost infinite possibilities - there are millions of books to learn from , millions of online courses to take , millions of opportunities to learn stuff like programming , foreign languages etc etc - its their own fault they spend time after work at watching stupid comedies or wanking to porn.

Each and every one of those "opportunities" was made available by people with money.

If people with money only offer crap to people without money, that is all people without money will be able to obtain.

Luckily, there ARE offers from people with money that are NOT crap, but there are also offers from people with money that ARE crap.

[taliey]

Minimum wage discussions aren't an isolated ivory tower exercise. Its intrinsically linked to standard of living and geographic factors.

This kind of nuance is lost with slogans and platitudes.

[Deleted]

The only thing of value I have to add to the conversation is that I live in a town in North Idaho where rent is about 700-800 for a one bedroom apartment in town, and moving down toward 500 out of town but with a 20+ minute commute possibly over mountains, and in the right months, FEET of snow. Not like, omg it snowed a foot last night. But more like, omg it snowed a foot every night for a week and I can't find my Ford Focus.

Minimum wage is 7.25

That's just over 1,100 a month for a month of 40 hour days.

You have to understand that when we talk about minimum vs. living wage, the discussion is NOT about working 20 hours overtime every paycheck. If you count overtime, effectively, your hourly pay has been raised.

How does one pay $500-800 (at the minimum) and then survive on $300 a month COMFORTABLY?

Whoever said it needed to be comfortably? You make enough to survive.. Don't like it? get a new job

[Hctaz]

Average rent in NJ for a 1 bedroom apartment is around $1,000 per month.

40 hours a week at $8.50 an hour will pay your rent, but no more. So 1 job at full time, for just a roof over your head. No food, no clothes, no travel, no medical expenses, no college, no cell phone. No internet access. Nothing.

Except min wage is lower than 8.50.

[Chrysia]

Grow a brain, the original person who purchased that house, or most houses that end up being foreclosures were most likely NOT making only minimum wage to begin with or they would had never qualified for the initial cost of the house. There are MANY reasons people lose houses other than not affording them, divorce and both parties refusing to pay for the house is a HUGE one. The whole point of my post was that Foreclosures are a dime a dozen and a good alternative to renting that is affordable to someone making only minimum wage.

There are not even fucking close to as many foreclosures as there are minimum wage workers.