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Hard to really understand significance of this without normalizing for cost of living in each state. In particular I’d like to see this normalized by the media
by endisneigh 5y ago
Hard to really understand significance of this without normalizing for cost of living in each state.
In particular I’d like to see this normalized by the median rent for a one bedroom apartment. Looking at the map, most of the lower paid folks live in cheaper areas, which is to be expected.
- bennysomething 5y agoAlso what ages people are when they are earning this really matters too
- PenguinCoder 5y agoWhy? Labor is labor.
- m-alsuwaidi 5y agoBecause as you’re growing up you’re supposed to get work on yourself, get more skills hence leading to higher paychecks. So no, labor isn’t labor.
- bennysomething 5y agoIf labor is labor should everyone be paid the same? Edit: age matters for a number of reasons, as employees gain more experience they become more valuable and take on more responsibility. Also the amount of money a person needs as they get older usually increases (care for children and possibly their own parents etc). Earning minimum wage at 21 is very different than being 41 on minimum wage. Often businesses hire young staff as an investment, they are untrained and at first add no value and this is reflected in the wages. However as they progress they earn more (certainly true of me I started on a really low salary , barely minimum wage).
- inamberclad 5y agoOf course the lower paid people live in cheaper areas, where else can they live? $15/hr is no longer a sufficient/comfortable wage for anyone in the US.
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoI know people in the suburban southeast who make $12-15/hr doing manufacturing jobs. Despite having more mouths to feed per income they're living a lot more comfortably and securely than the people in the urban northeast I know who are making $15/16/17/hr doing service jobs.
- mywittyname 5y agoTax credits are a huge deal for low wage workers. People who have a few kids can get like 50% of their wages in tax credits.
- endisneigh 5y agoI don’t disagree but has the minimum wage ever been a comfortable wage?
- niij 5y agoThere are many rural areas where it absolutely is.
- parkingrift 5y agoMIT has a living wage calculator to attempt to answer this question. https://livingwage.mit.edu https://livingwage.mit.edu I would guess that $15/hr is above the "living wage" in a majority of counties in the United States. Perhaps your perspective is skewed by your experience in expensive urban areas?
- toomuchtodo 5y agoPerhaps the problem is what the definition of "living" is? There is a gap between economic serfdom and comfortable/economic physiological safety.
- parkingrift 5y agoTheir definition of "living" is fairly simple. "The tool helps individuals, communities, and employers determine a local wage rate that allows residents to meet minimum standards of living." For the purposes of this calculator that's enough income for food, housing, transportation, civic duties, and medical care. Their overall methodology is located here: https://livingwage.mit.edu/resources/Living-Wage-Users-Guide-Technical-Documentation-2021-12-28.pdf https://livingwage.mit.edu/resources/Living-Wage-Users-Guide...
- legitster 5y agoThe fact that they included Puerto Rico in the data is especially weird. It has nowhere near the same kind of cost of living as states.