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> > “My dad got a job straight out of high school, saved up, and bought a house in his 20s,” said Anne Dakota, a 21-year-old receptionist from Asheville, North

> > “My dad got a job straight out of high school, saved up, and bought a house in his 20s,” said Anne Dakota, a 21-year-old receptionist from Asheville, North Carolina, who earns minimum wage. “I don’t even think that’s possible for me, at least with the current money I make.” This anecdote is presented as the norm, but it’s actually far from it. “Minimum wage” is the tip off that the journalist went out searching for the most extreme anecdote they could find. For all the talk about minimum wage jobs, only around 1% of jobs actually pay federal minimum wage. That number is falling rapidly as it becomes trivial for anyone to walk into a $15/hr job with benefits almost anywhere except the smallest towns. Of course it’s not possible for someone earning minimum wage to save up money and buy a house in their 20s. Minimum wage jobs are literally the lowest paying jobs a person could possibly find. Anchoring expectations that no job should exist unless it pays enough to buy a house in your 20s in any city you want is blatantly unrealistic.

notreallyserio 5y ago
> For all the talk about minimum wage jobs, only around 1% of jobs actually pay federal minimum wage. I see this stat a lot and it leaves me wondering how many people are within, say, 50 cents or 5%[0] of minimum wage. The percent of workers earning minimum wage doesn't seem that useful (and I guess neither would the figures returned for my request). In any case I'd find hours required to live alone within ~30 minutes of work a more compelling statistic. It adjusts for CoL and represents a reasonable lifestyle to shoot for. 0: not suggesting these are equivalent figures
- claudiulodro 5y ago
  Also note that state/city minimum wage is often higher than federal minimum wage, so using only federal minimum wage stats is not a full picture. e.g. Washington's minimum wage is ~$14.50/hr, so nobody in that whole state is making federal minimum wage, but I doubt anybody is living well on "double the federal minimum wage" in most of the state.
- notacoward 5y ago
  It's not just the wage that matters but the consistency of the wage, and the benefits that go with it (or more often don't at that level), and the expenses that go with it. Consider two examples. * Person A is making minimum wage, but with good benefits, consistent hours, and a reasonable cost to live within walking distance of the job. * Person B is making minimum wage plus a buck per hour, but is technically not a full-time employee so no benefits at all. Shifts are often changed with little notice, sometimes to hours that are not very transit-friendly, and living within walking distance is utterly off the table for anyone short of a rich techie. Who's really better off? It's easy for full-time internet commentators to look at simplistic stats and draw simplistic (self serving) conclusions, but your metric is much better and closer to the ones used by people who actually study issues such as poverty.
notacoward 5y ago
> Minimum wage jobs are literally the lowest paying jobs a person could possibly find. That is incorrect. There are whole categories of jobs that are exempt from minimum wage, and that doesn't even count gig work.
- gruez 5y ago
  >There are whole categories of jobs that are exempt from minimum wage I'm presuming you're talking about tipped jobs? It seems reasonable to presume that they earn close to minimum wage when factoring in tips, otherwise people would switch to non-exempt jobs.
  - smileysteve 5y ago
    > otherwise people would switch to non-exempt jobs. But we're seeing this in the US, between covid restaurant layoffs and closures; Tipped dining service is struggling to recruit.
    - Amezarak 5y ago
      Tipped employees are required to be paid minimum wage if their tips don’t equal 7.25/hr. Their employer is federally mandated to make up the difference. Having said that, most tipped employees are doing much, much better…which is why they aren’t clamoring to go wash dishes in the back.
      - notacoward 5y ago
        There are far more exemptions than that. https://www.minimum-wage.org/articles/minimum-wage-exemptions https://www.minimum-wage.org/articles/minimum-wage-exemption...
  - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
    Trucking is a big one.

notreallyserio 5y ago

> For all the talk about minimum wage jobs, only around 1% of jobs actually pay federal minimum wage. I see this stat a lot and it leaves me wondering how many people are within, say, 50 cents or 5%[0] of minimum wage. The percent of workers earning minimum wage doesn't seem that useful (and I guess neither would the figures returned for my request). In any case I'd find hours required to live alone within ~30 minutes of work a more compelling statistic. It adjusts for CoL and represents a reasonable lifestyle to shoot for. 0: not suggesting these are equivalent figures

claudiulodro 5y ago
Also note that state/city minimum wage is often higher than federal minimum wage, so using only federal minimum wage stats is not a full picture. e.g. Washington's minimum wage is ~$14.50/hr, so nobody in that whole state is making federal minimum wage, but I doubt anybody is living well on "double the federal minimum wage" in most of the state.
notacoward 5y ago
It's not just the wage that matters but the consistency of the wage, and the benefits that go with it (or more often don't at that level), and the expenses that go with it. Consider two examples. * Person A is making minimum wage, but with good benefits, consistent hours, and a reasonable cost to live within walking distance of the job. * Person B is making minimum wage plus a buck per hour, but is technically not a full-time employee so no benefits at all. Shifts are often changed with little notice, sometimes to hours that are not very transit-friendly, and living within walking distance is utterly off the table for anyone short of a rich techie. Who's really better off? It's easy for full-time internet commentators to look at simplistic stats and draw simplistic (self serving) conclusions, but your metric is much better and closer to the ones used by people who actually study issues such as poverty.

notacoward 5y ago

> Minimum wage jobs are literally the lowest paying jobs a person could possibly find. That is incorrect. There are whole categories of jobs that are exempt from minimum wage, and that doesn't even count gig work.

gruez 5y ago
>There are whole categories of jobs that are exempt from minimum wage I'm presuming you're talking about tipped jobs? It seems reasonable to presume that they earn close to minimum wage when factoring in tips, otherwise people would switch to non-exempt jobs.
- smileysteve 5y ago
  > otherwise people would switch to non-exempt jobs. But we're seeing this in the US, between covid restaurant layoffs and closures; Tipped dining service is struggling to recruit.
  - Amezarak 5y ago
    Tipped employees are required to be paid minimum wage if their tips don’t equal 7.25/hr. Their employer is federally mandated to make up the difference. Having said that, most tipped employees are doing much, much better…which is why they aren’t clamoring to go wash dishes in the back.
    - notacoward 5y ago
      There are far more exemptions than that. https://www.minimum-wage.org/articles/minimum-wage-exemptions https://www.minimum-wage.org/articles/minimum-wage-exemption...
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  Trucking is a big one.