How do people survive on minimum wage?

[onecut39]

I make over minimum wage but when I started my job I made minimum wage and was fucking glad to have it too.....You can all bitch about how small amount of money it is but it is a hell of a lot more then nothing you greedy idiot liberals. I got raises based on my performance the way it is suppose to be. I still dont make much money but I still am grateful cause it helps feed my family without being a welfare slave.

So your performance has't been that great?

 

[thereisnospoon]

Skill level sets the wage. The more skills you have that are in demand the more $ you make.
Minimum wage earners have little, few or no skills. "Do you want fries with that" is not a skill.
I value my workers, all of them because they value their work ethic.
Australia is not America.
Delta is ready when you are.

There will always be people needed to do those minimum wage jobs, but if people can barely pay their rent with what little money they earn, why can't the employer pay them more?

Would you really object to paying an extra $2 for a pizza if it meant the delivery boy was paid more? I sure wouldn't.

Once you go down that road it leads to inflation across the board.
ONe must understand that most small businesses which employ MOST of the min wage workers, operate on small margins.
Also, one must remember that if one business decides to take the lead and boost wages which of course would force that business to increase prices, others MUST follow or the consumer will head to the guy with the lower prices.
We are all motivated by profit. Even employed workers. And as such we look to get the biggest bang for our buck.
If you wish to pay more, feel free to shop at Nordstroms as opposed to Macy's. That is your choice.
Now, a min wage job is NOT designed to pay the rent or permit the worker ot be self sufficient. These are beginning of career, entry level type jobs for people just starting out or for retirees looking for something to do with their time.

 

[thanatos144]

I make over minimum wage but when I started my job I made minimum wage and was fucking glad to have it too.....You can all bitch about how small amount of money it is but it is a hell of a lot more then nothing you greedy idiot liberals. I got raises based on my performance the way it is suppose to be. I still dont make much money but I still am grateful cause it helps feed my family without being a welfare slave.

So your performance has't been that great?

More like the economy isn't that great...I already have had three raises and am up for a promotion so your wrong.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Why can't you understand this?

The price of goods is driven by the cost of producing them. If you have to pay your workers more, the price of what they produce will escalate.

This is amazingly simple, yet the great brains of the left seem incapable of, or unwilling to, understand.

Actually, it is not that simple, smart person. You are only considering the supply side. Price points are derived from the intersection of the demand and supply curve. That's Econ 101.

It IS that simple. The cost to produce is reflected in part by the cost of labor. Labor makes up the largest portion of the cost of doing business.
You are interjecting what is already part of the equation.
Look, if there are 5 pizza parlors within 2 miles of each other, the prices will all be roughly the same. The owners watch each others pricing.
Now, let's say we get a person who buys one of those pizza parlors. He decides it is time to pay a higher wage to his workers. He pays $9 per hour. Of course his price points will be higher to reflect the higher than market level wages. The customers see the higher prices. Of course the customers will avoid the new pizza parlor.
Now, the new guy has three options. He can lower his prices in which case cut into his profits or even end up breaking even. He can do without one or more of his workers and lower his prices but keep the same wages. In this case the owner will have to spend far more time in the shop to pick up the slack. Lastly ,he can lower the pay of his workers.
It is just that simple.
Now suppose this new guy is the only pizza parlor for say 10 miles. He charges more for his product to cover the higher than market rate wages. Guess what, the customers see $14 pizzas instead of a more comfortable $10...The customers become non-customers. They do without pizza. Once again, same three options.
Same goes for the hardware store, or whichever small business one wishes to use as an example.

 

[Skull Pilot]

---(They don't they just exist after 3 years they become zombies)----

Article> One of my clients recently reported getting a job at a fast-food restaurant. Since she's been unemployed and desperately looking for work for nearly a year, I was thrilled for her. She was very excited that she'll be making $7.50 an hour -– a whole quarter more than minimum wage.



After she left my office, I got out a calculator. I've never worked for minimum wage, so I didn't know exactly how much -- or how little -- money that is.



Assuming 80 hours per pay period, my client will be bringing home around $462 every two weeks. That's with no health insurance or retirement contributions.



If I brought home $924 a month, would I even be able to survive? I decided to find out.

read more How do people survive on minimum wage?- MSN Money

They dont. Minimum wage is complete bullshit in america. It takes at minimum TWO middle class incomes to survive and lead a normal life.

Bullshit.

There are hundreds or thousands of examples of families who live and live well on one income.

How to live well on $40,000 or less - 1 - families & spending - MSN Money

 

[thereisnospoon]

I started my business running errands for law firms while doing grad work in Atlanta at age 23. At age 24 I was the #3 investigator for a large law firm working the state court and magistrate cases for the young lawyers. At age 26 I was the #1 investigator for that firm. At age 27 I was licensed as a private detective. Most of my work was litigation but we did do a lot of domestic work also along with repo and fugitive bail At age 30 I received my full agency license.
Starting at the bottom helped me tremendously. It led me to the top after years of hard work. And the hard part is not getting to the top, the hard part is staying there!
Shame these days people want to start at a "living wage" and have no skills to justify it.

My first serious round with self employment was when Mr. Foxfyre was transferred to Santa Fe when we had been married a couple of years and were still in the low income bracket and struggling financially. I got on with the Santa Fe New Mexican (local newspaper) but had to take a minimum wage go-fer job in the advertising department before something opened up for me on the news desk.

So, since I had left a job as legal secretary and research assistant in a law office in Texas, and had access to a free classified ad in the newspaper, I offered free lance legal secretarial services in the evenings and on weekends. Santa Fe is the state capital and the federal courthouse is also there, so we had a lot of visiting attorneys who sometimes needed a legal brief typed up. They would call me, I would come take the dictation in the late afternoon or evening, type it up, and deliver it back to them. In no time I was making almost as much doing that as I was making at the newspaper. (I will always be hugely grateful to my highschool that offered both shorthand and typing classes with excellent teachers who helped me become proficient in both skills that served me very well in college and ever since. That was before government meddling in the schools.)

Sounds a lot like us as She Who Must Be Obeyed also started as a legal secretary! Now she runs her own paralegal contracting business.

In my ( Her) house I have a "She who must Be Obeyed" as well. I refer (more like defer)to her as "Both Houses of Congress".
Thing is....I do not want her job!

 

[thereisnospoon]

California Girl said:

What is a 'living wage'? Given that if a business increases what it pays its workers, it generally has to increase the price to its customers... therefore the cost of living goes up, which means the 'living wage' is no longer a 'living wage' which means it needs to be increased... which leads to increased prices to customers, which leads to an increase in the cost of living, which leads to an increase in the 'living wage', which leads to.... I think you get where I'm going with this. There is no simple answer... and people really should recognize that and stop expecting simple answers.

So cheap prices are more important than paying employees a wage they can survive on? That's ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with paying an extra few dollars if it means the employes are paid a decent wage.

Over here, our prices are more expensive, but our employees are paid generously. The minimum wage here is around $650 a week. Yet the article mentions you would have to work 80 hours a week (I assume the author means an 80 hour working week) to earn two hundred dollars LESS. That is just wrong no matter how you look at it.

A casual worker at McDonalds, over 21, will make close to $17 an hour. You can work just 20 hours for the week and take home the same, if not more, than the same person working 80 hours at McDonalds in America.

America needs to raise its minimum wage. The cost of living goes up every year, yet the minimum wage doesn't go up enough to cover this - why not?

$17 an hour for an unskilled worker at Mc D's? Excuse me but I think you people are over cooking your shrimp on the barbie....Or your brains are clogged up with Vegemite.
Now way in hell would a fast food joint pay those wages. The prices for the food would match or even exceed those at sit down eateries. People would stop going to Mickey D's.
In this country, That kind of money is paid to skilled labor and educated people.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Why can't you understand this?

The price of goods is driven by the cost of producing them. If you have to pay your workers more, the price of what they produce will escalate.

This is amazingly simple, yet the great brains of the left seem incapable of, or unwilling to, understand.

Actually, it is not that simple, smart person. You are only considering the supply side. Price points are derived from the intersection of the demand and supply curve. That's Econ 101.

Also in Econ 101 though is the fact that there is different demand for different commodities. There is only so much demand for bread, for isntance. People may buy more bread if the price is favorable to them and less bread when prices are higher than people are happy paying. But at any price, people are only going to buy so much bread.

In other things, price is a huge factor. Ford is going to sell many many more Ford Focus than Lincoln Navigators because so many more people can afford a Focus. And if prices escalate to a point people cannot afford or are unwilliong to pay, they choose a different product or make do with what they have or do without.

In labor intensive enterprises like contracting, the guy who overpays his employees is not going to be competitive in his bids. If he cannot get work, he and all his employees make nothing. The guy who pays people enough to merit good people who do good work and who can also be competitive in pricing is going to get a lot of whatever work is to be had. Most of us would agree that it is better to make something than nothing.

You hit it right here..."And if prices escalate to a point people cannot afford or are unwilliong to pay, they choose a different product or make do with what they have or do without."
This issue which you stated is what eats away at the innards of liberals. Their premise is that no one ever have to make do without or settle for something.
As far as progressives/libs are concerned, the things other people can afford are actually entitlements. That is the basis of their wage argument. That nothing no matter the price should be out of reach of anyone who wants it.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Skill level sets the wage. The more skills you have that are in demand the more $ you make.
Minimum wage earners have little, few or no skills. "Do you want fries with that" is not a skill.
I value my workers, all of them because they value their work ethic.
Australia is not America.
Delta is ready when you are.

There will always be people needed to do those minimum wage jobs, but if people can barely pay their rent with what little money they earn, why can't the employer pay them more?

Would you really object to paying an extra $2 for a pizza if it meant the delivery boy was paid more? I sure wouldn't.

I wouldn't, maybe the delivery boy should go to college, or heres a good idea, how about he deliver pizzas while in college, and then when he graduates he can then step up and make good money, Instead of working the bottom of the pit jobs and expecting everybody else to make up the difference due to his lack of ambition. Why dont you just go ahead and tip the pizza boy the extra $2 and leave the rest of us the hell alone.

Or better, learn the pizza business while delivering and watch the owner for tips on how to make it work, then WOW!!!!! How about OWNING that business!!!

 

[thereisnospoon]

I wouldn't, maybe the delivery boy should go to college, or heres a good idea, how about he deliver pizzas while in college, and then when he graduates he can then step up and make good money, Instead of working the bottom of the pit jobs and expecting everybody else to make up the difference due to his lack of ambition. Why dont you just go ahead and tip the pizza boy the extra $2 and leave the rest of us the hell alone.

If the delivery boy goes to college, he will need to study. Why would he deliver pizzas when he could be studying for his exams?

Conservatives just don't get it. They think people can go to college and work a full time job at the same time. No wonder kids get so stressed and suffer burnout, the pressure on them is too much.

Here in the States we call that whining. Too much pressure.
Please.
And yes, lots of people work full time and get 4 year degrees.
Perfect example. Had a friend who's Dad was an iron worker. In that job he made very good wages. But he wanted more. So for 8 years, he went to work and went to school at night. Taking credits toward an engineering degree with a minor in metallurgy, in the building trades. After he graduated, he applied and finally became employed by one of New York City's most prominent constructors of high rise buildings. When he retired he was making in excess of $250,000 per year as a Vice President of Structural Engineering.
Instead of carping about pizza delivery and fast food workers not making enough money, you should be focused on improving one's self to make it beyond those menial jobs.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Please give me a break! The pressure is too high? If kids are suffering from pressure it's not from having to work or study, but from the huge amount of expensive junk they get.

The pressure IS high. Our kids go to senior school (years 11 and 12) and after coming home from a 6 hour day at school, they get lumped with up to 5 hours of homework - EVERY night. 11 hours pouring over those books. They need to study because if they don't get excellent marks on their exams, they won't be eligible for university. Most of the students study hard but don't get a chance to go to Uni and study their chosen careers.

Well, I guess you're pretty happy with your minimum wage then.

Not exactly. I live at home, so I can manage okay, but I am on the lookout for something different.

Not everyone is cut out for higher education. That's why schools are selective in the application process. So what. College is not an entitlement.

 

[thereisnospoon]

How much time do they spend on facebook, twitter, cell-phones, etc?

Children should be grateful that they have the opportunity to study.

They probably spend more time on Facebook now than they used to. And of course people should be happy they have the opportunity to study, but is it fair to prevent someone from persuing their chosen career simply because they scored 95% on their exams instead of 96%?

Ok...Stop making up stuff. It's tiresome.

 

[thereisnospoon]

You buy the Chink products and hire the Mexicans so under your analysis you are to blame.

That is actually very true. The American people have become lazy morons. No one even questions where their products came from and no one seems willing to shell out the extra dough to keep those jobs here in America. It is not even about quality anymore. People just want price and they are willing to sink the country to get it. Very sad.

Not usually a matter of extra dough...I just bought 12 3x5 inch American flags, made in America for $1.50 plus tax. I think it's a matter of supply...before I gave up my never buy "made in China" campaign, I searched everywhere for shoes made in the USA for my kids, was even willing to pay more for them. Finally, I thought I'd found the right store. Boxes and boxes, piled to the ceiling all saying "made in the USA". I was so excited...then I checked the shoes "made in Taiwan" seems it was the boxes that were made in the USA. I couldn't find a local shoe store that sold shoes made in the USA.

Our government paid businesses to ship our jobs overseas, they have rewarded illegals for coming here and keeping our wages low. Our government is concerned with Big Business and payoffs, they couldn't care less about the average America citizen. They give us 2 options at the ballot box and both options are the same and the stupid American people keep fighting between the 2 options as if they are each something different.

I think it's too late for Americans to wake up...I think our country is lost. I would have immigrated to another country but they won't have us. Too old for Austrailia, not educated enough for New Zealand, and well, let's face it, what country in the world, other than the USA, is going to let in low skilled labor to compete with their own citizens?

I'm just glad that my husband is near retirement, and I'm, sad to say, also glad that my kids qualify for disability. Never in the world thought I'd be happy to have special needs kids......

REd Wing Shoes..Made in Minnesota.
Justin Boots....Made in the USA in several states....
You did not look hard enough.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Please give me a break! The pressure is too high? If kids are suffering from pressure it's not from having to work or study, but from the huge amount of expensive junk they get.

The pressure IS high. Our kids go to senior school (years 11 and 12) and after coming home from a 6 hour day at school, they get lumped with up to 5 hours of homework - EVERY night. 11 hours pouring over those books. They need to study because if they don't get excellent marks on their exams, they won't be eligible for university. Most of the students study hard but don't get a chance to go to Uni and study their chosen careers.

Well, I guess you're pretty happy with your minimum wage then.

Not exactly. I live at home, so I can manage okay, but I am on the lookout for something different.

I know people with an education who are working mw jobs. There just aren't enough jobs out there. Pretty sad when a college educated person has to take a mw job.

Ever bother to ask then in what course of study is their degree?
A degree in and of itself is not an automatic ticket to stardom. The degree must be marketable. It must be in an area where graduates can find employment in their field of study.
Getting degrees in for example Greek Philosophy or 13th century English Literature are useless in the real world.

 

[thereisnospoon]

I thought extrapolating was a fancy word for bending women over the couch doggy style.

PRICELESS!!!!!

 

[Noomi]

California Girl said:

What is a 'living wage'? Given that if a business increases what it pays its workers, it generally has to increase the price to its customers... therefore the cost of living goes up, which means the 'living wage' is no longer a 'living wage' which means it needs to be increased... which leads to increased prices to customers, which leads to an increase in the cost of living, which leads to an increase in the 'living wage', which leads to.... I think you get where I'm going with this. There is no simple answer... and people really should recognize that and stop expecting simple answers.

So cheap prices are more important than paying employees a wage they can survive on? That's ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with paying an extra few dollars if it means the employes are paid a decent wage.

Over here, our prices are more expensive, but our employees are paid generously. The minimum wage here is around $650 a week. Yet the article mentions you would have to work 80 hours a week (I assume the author means an 80 hour working week) to earn two hundred dollars LESS. That is just wrong no matter how you look at it.

A casual worker at McDonalds, over 21, will make close to $17 an hour. You can work just 20 hours for the week and take home the same, if not more, than the same person working 80 hours at McDonalds in America.

America needs to raise its minimum wage. The cost of living goes up every year, yet the minimum wage doesn't go up enough to cover this - why not?

$17 an hour for an unskilled worker at Mc D's? Excuse me but I think you people are over cooking your shrimp on the barbie....Or your brains are clogged up with Vegemite.
Now way in hell would a fast food joint pay those wages. The prices for the food would match or even exceed those at sit down eateries. People would stop going to Mickey D's.
In this country, That kind of money is paid to skilled labor and educated people.

And there is your problem. We have people who want to turn up for work because they earn a decent wage. If I was in the US and couldn't find a job that paid me more than $10 an hour, I wouldn't bother working. I'd live off welfare because there is no way I am working for a couple of bucks an hour.

Our prices are more expensive, but each store will still bring in customers. Whenever I visit my local McDonalds, I don't see any fewer customers there, in fact, I probably see more!

 

[Noomi]

How much time do they spend on facebook, twitter, cell-phones, etc?

Children should be grateful that they have the opportunity to study.

They probably spend more time on Facebook now than they used to. And of course people should be happy they have the opportunity to study, but is it fair to prevent someone from persuing their chosen career simply because they scored 95% on their exams instead of 96%?

Ok...Stop making up stuff. It's tiresome.

Nothing is being made up. That is how it works over here. We have some parents forcing their children to repeat Year 12 because they only scored 95% on their exams instead of that 96%. Those kids sit the year again hoping to do better on their exams so they get into college, even though they did perfectly well the first time!

I don't know how it works in the US, but I do think that giving kids scholarships for kicking a ball around is ridiculous. Playing football is not a job, its a game.

 

[Samson]

They probably spend more time on Facebook now than they used to. And of course people should be happy they have the opportunity to study, but is it fair to prevent someone from persuing their chosen career simply because they scored 95% on their exams instead of 96%?

Ok...Stop making up stuff. It's tiresome.

Nothing is being made up. That is how it works over here. We have some parents forcing their children to repeat Year 12 because they only scored 95% on their exams instead of that 96%. Those kids sit the year again hoping to do better on their exams so they get into college, even though they did perfectly well the first time!

I don't know how it works in the US, but I do think that giving kids scholarships for kicking a ball around is ridiculous. Playing football is not a job, its a game.

What does "kicking a ball around" have to do with making 95% vs 96%?

 

[thereisnospoon]

They probably spend more time on Facebook now than they used to. And of course people should be happy they have the opportunity to study, but is it fair to prevent someone from persuing their chosen career simply because they scored 95% on their exams instead of 96%?

Ok...Stop making up stuff. It's tiresome.

Nothing is being made up. That is how it works over here. We have some parents forcing their children to repeat Year 12 because they only scored 95% on their exams instead of that 96%. Those kids sit the year again hoping to do better on their exams so they get into college, even though they did perfectly well the first time!

I don't know how it works in the US, but I do think that giving kids scholarships for kicking a ball around is ridiculous. Playing football is not a job, its a game.

Ok. I have had about all I am going to take of your USA bashing.
Ya know what sister. I don't give shit how you folks do anything in your 7 million square mile Penal Colony.
This is the greatest nation on earth. Did it ever occur to your Outback dust filled brain that is why half the Earth's population wants to come HERE instead of for example, the land or Roos and Duck Billed Platypus?
The problem with your socialist shitheads is you think money grows on trees and you are entitled to the largess of others.
You don't know a Kola's ass about business or economics.
Why don't you walk from Brisbane to Perth without water intake.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Ok...Stop making up stuff. It's tiresome.

Nothing is being made up. That is how it works over here. We have some parents forcing their children to repeat Year 12 because they only scored 95% on their exams instead of that 96%. Those kids sit the year again hoping to do better on their exams so they get into college, even though they did perfectly well the first time!

I don't know how it works in the US, but I do think that giving kids scholarships for kicking a ball around is ridiculous. Playing football is not a job, its a game.

What does "kicking a ball around" have to do with making 95% vs 96%?

Nothing....Noodnik is just screeching