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Before graduating college, the most money I made was working for Walmart at a distribution center. I made $19.20 an hour which was pretty good considering minim
by choward 9y ago
Before graduating college, the most money I made was working for Walmart at a distribution center. I made $19.20 an hour which was pretty good considering minimum wage was just over $5.
- rbanffy 9y agoCan anyone actually live on $40 a day?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- smileysteve 9y agoThe poster's point is that $19.20 is significantly above the federal minimum wage and what Walmart is legally required to pay. I want to emphasize in this context (gig delivery) that the recent UberEats Stockholm posting indicated even less than $5/hr.
- phamilton 9y agoCertainly in a place like Boise, ID. That's $800/month, $704 after tax. Rent with roommates will run around $300/month. Food is $150/month ($5/day). That leaves $250/month for misc expenditures. It would absolutely be tight, but people can and do live on that much.
- lghh 9y agoHope you never get sick and have to call in, your car never breaks down, and you never have a medical emergency!
- mythrwy 9y agoIf you get seriously sick 3X (5 time even) that amount won't save you. But as things stand now you'd have free(ish) healthcare anyway. Car? What car? You are walking, biking, riding the bus. It's doable, barely, just barely and there will be troubles if anything comes up.
- rbanffy 9y agoWould that qualify as life or merely survival? Can a person under these conditions become a parent? Can someone in this situation raise a healthy kid? I doubt it.
- mythrwy 9y agoNo, you can't have a kid on this money. Nor is it a very good life in terms of material possessions. You probably can't afford a horse either. But none of those things were specified in OP's post.
- rbanffy 9y agoThat's more or less what it meant - a meaningful, healthy life, above merely survival. I would know - I'm the OP.
- mythrwy 9y agoAh yes, indeed you are. I had to go further up the tree it appears. I don't disagree. Not a good life. People live on a buck here and there and change they find in vending machines as far as a "living" goes. Technically they are "alive" but it can't be nice way to live. Kind of makes one wonder exactly what level of "living" is acceptable. I suppose preferences vary.
- knightofmars 9y agoWhat if you have a family?
- icebraining 9y agoHopefully you have a second wage earner in it.
- bluGill 9y agoFood goes up a little bit, and your room is more crowded. Everything else is the same. Go look at the size of a log cabin, they were about the size of a single bedroom today and large families lived in them.
- gknoy 9y ago> [if you have a family] Food goes up a little bit, and your room is more crowded. Everything else is the same. The amount of money and extra time that we spent on just one baby was astounding - clothes, doctor visits, food. Many more trips to the store/pharmacy/doctor, etc, than normal. The USDA's child cost estimator [0] says that raising a child in the midwest costs about an extra $12000 a year, on average. Not all of that breakdown may apply, but even if you were to ONLY look at food costs, an extra $1500/year in food (when you're only making the hypothetical $800/month discussed in the GP) is not "a little". 0: https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/tools/crc_calculator/ https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/tools/crc_calculator/
- bluGill 9y agoMy wife is great at scrounging: kids didn't add much to my costs unless we are eating out. You can get last years styles all over for cheap. My kids can have a few stains - they will be putting their own on anyway.
- phamilton 9y agoIt raises some interesting questions. Should every job pay a sufficient wage to raise a family? How big of a family? Should we require employers to pay a teenager as much as someone supporting a family of 8?
- Consultant32452 9y agoAt least 80% of humans live on $10 per day or less. http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-sta...
- SilasX 9y agoThe parent meant in the area where Walmart etc are paying that wage.
- Consultant32452 9y agoOkay, then since the Walmart employees are still alive, the answer is yes. They can live on $40/day. As an added bonus, they have a higher standard of living than the vast majority of humans on the planet.
- __jal 9y agoWell, no. If they could, they wouldn't be receiving assistance. Walmart has turned, e.g., food assistance programs into a subsidy for themselves.
- Consultant32452 9y agoIf you can imagine a world in which food assistance programs suddenly came to an end, would Wal-Mart raise its wages? Perhaps the workers would demand more. Either way, in the long run it's not possible for any employer to pay wages below the basic survival rate.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> Either way, in the long run it's not possible for any employer to pay wages below the basic survival rate. Sure it is, if they are willing to accept more rapid turnover and the workers they are competing for have no better offers.
- bluGill 9y agoYes. Most people want a higher standard of living, but if you live in a small enough apartment, walk everywhere, cook your own meals, have only minimal utilities (your furnace exists for the pipes not for your comfort)... it can be done.
- s73ver 9y agoDistribution center is different than in store associates.