You won’t believe how little $8.25 an hour buys

[Socialist]

You won t believe how little 8.25 an hour buys Oxfam America First Person Blog
Disgusting that this is possible in the "richest country in the world"

She lives in Taxachusetts I don't give a fuck, they vote for democrats and high taxes, fuck them crying babies

Btw why don't she bring in a sack lunch? Is it beanth those snobs?

Jesus Christ, what the hell is wrong with you people? It doesn't matter what state she lives in, should we never help anyone if they're in a place you don't like?

Can you comprehend? If you vote for idiots who raise taxes, run away companys, that's your Damn problem and no one else? You hear all the time how democrats help the middle class and poor, how the fuck do they do that, if they tax the crap out of company's and force them to leave....

More senseless horseshit. Raise taxes? Taxes on the rich are low compared to almost every other country, run away companies? Capitalists left on their own LOL.

These people like to cite lower corporate taxes in foreign countries as the case to lower US corporate taxes,

but they fail to point out that almost every one of those foreign countries has a VAT tax, that substantially offsets the lower corporate income tax.

Would they like to lower corporate income tax here and then add a VAT tax to make up the lost revenue? Eh?

Of course not, that's communism!

 

[Pete7469]

When you can put a simple drive thru order together without fucking it up, then we'll talk about more pay.

 

[Wyatt earp]

You do realize, and I don't want to say this since this forum has a thing for personal attacks, that I work in fast food making 7.85 an hour?

And you assume I have a problem with that. I don't. That's more than I have right now.

What I have a problem with is with people in your position demanding career level pay for entry level jobs. I equate that with greed, not a need "to get by." I would be happy to get what I'm paid. I would put more effort into doing my job than demanding a pay raise. I see people making demands of people kind enough to give them any sort of employment as ingrates.

You're not leeching off of anyone, your grandmother is a loving member of your family who is supporting you on her own free will

That is no excuse. To anyone else, this could be considered as exploitation. I see it that way. If I take government assistance, I'm taking her tax dollars. If I'm not on it, I'm still taking her money. That presents a major moral dilemma for me that I can't handle.

upward mobility is a joke..

Of course it's a joke if you're just standing there complaining about it. It's all about effort.

I don't want career level pay, I believe wages should be adjusted to the cost of living on a state by state basis. Nothing is perfect. The contradictions of capital are coming out in full force, things are getting worse worldwide in terms of income inequality, resource waste, etc, etc.. Greed? The greedy ones are the capitalist dogs who moan and bitch about the end of days if taxes were raised b 2%, the dogs who mercilessly exploit the third world to sell cheap products in the first world, the ones who move jobs overseas to avoid paying decent wages or providing benefits.. This is starting to happen to service jobs now to.. Err, most people put effort into their job, after all, they're easily replaceable, I'd imagine they'd put forth more effort if they were paid a decent wage. How would anyone consider that exploitation? A moral dilemma? I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.

Lmao, go ahead and adjust wages by a state to state level and watch more company's leave the blue city's, God you are dumb.

Greed works both ways, which came first the big box stores with low wages or Sam the butcher or Floyd barber shops with livable wages?

Americans wanted cheap crap they did it to themselves, the big capitalist gave you what you wanted.

 

[Socialist]

If America is such a mess that we can only save it by making the poor poorer, then we are lost.

Republicans love saving money by punishing the poor, they're true conservatives, but it's ok to spend trillions destabilizing the Middle East.

The Israel lobby has more money than the Americans working at minimum wage lobby.

But Israel is a victim! The evil Palestinians throw rocks at them and Israel responds by blowing up a hospital!

 

[Socialist]

When you can put a simple drive thru order together without fucking it up, then we'll talk about more pay.

You've clearly never worked in fast food, orders are rarely messed up, but, of course, when they are, it's assumed it's the norm..

 

[Socialist]

You do realize, and I don't want to say this since this forum has a thing for personal attacks, that I work in fast food making 7.85 an hour?

And you assume I have a problem with that. I don't. That's more than I have right now.

What I have a problem with is with people in your position demanding career level pay for entry level jobs. I equate that with greed, not a need "to get by." I would be happy to get what I'm paid. I would put more effort into doing my job than demanding a pay raise. I see people making demands of people kind enough to give them any sort of employment as ingrates.

You're not leeching off of anyone, your grandmother is a loving member of your family who is supporting you on her own free will

That is no excuse. To anyone else, this could be considered as exploitation. I see it that way. If I take government assistance, I'm taking her tax dollars. If I'm not on it, I'm still taking her money. That presents a major moral dilemma for me that I can't handle.

upward mobility is a joke..

Of course it's a joke if you're just standing there complaining about it. It's all about effort.

I don't want career level pay, I believe wages should be adjusted to the cost of living on a state by state basis. Nothing is perfect. The contradictions of capital are coming out in full force, things are getting worse worldwide in terms of income inequality, resource waste, etc, etc.. Greed? The greedy ones are the capitalist dogs who moan and bitch about the end of days if taxes were raised b 2%, the dogs who mercilessly exploit the third world to sell cheap products in the first world, the ones who move jobs overseas to avoid paying decent wages or providing benefits.. This is starting to happen to service jobs now to.. Err, most people put effort into their job, after all, they're easily replaceable, I'd imagine they'd put forth more effort if they were paid a decent wage. How would anyone consider that exploitation? A moral dilemma? I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.

Lmao, go ahead and adjust wages by a state to state level and watch more company's leave the blue city's, God you are dumb.

Greed works both ways, which came first the big box stores with low wages or Sam the butcher or Floyd barber shops with livable wages?

Americans wanted cheap crap they did it to themselves, the big capitalist gave you what you wanted.

So wages shouldn't ever be raised because capitalists will leave? LOL.

 

[bedowin62]

You do realize, and I don't want to say this since this forum has a thing for personal attacks, that I work in fast food making 7.85 an hour?

And you assume I have a problem with that. I don't. That's more than I have right now.

What I have a problem with is with people in your position demanding career level pay for entry level jobs. I equate that with greed, not a need "to get by." I would be happy to get what I'm paid. I would put more effort into doing my job than demanding a pay raise. I see people making demands of people kind enough to give them any sort of employment as ingrates.

You're not leeching off of anyone, your grandmother is a loving member of your family who is supporting you on her own free will

That is no excuse. To anyone else, this could be considered as exploitation. I see it that way. If I take government assistance, I'm taking her tax dollars. If I'm not on it, I'm still taking her money. That presents a major moral dilemma for me that I can't handle.

upward mobility is a joke..

Of course it's a joke if you're just standing there complaining about it. It's all about effort.

I don't want career level pay, I believe wages should be adjusted to the cost of living on a state by state basis. Nothing is perfect. The contradictions of capital are coming out in full force, things are getting worse worldwide in terms of income inequality, resource waste, etc, etc.. Greed? The greedy ones are the capitalist dogs who moan and bitch about the end of days if taxes were raised b 2%, the dogs who mercilessly exploit the third world to sell cheap products in the first world, the ones who move jobs overseas to avoid paying decent wages or providing benefits.. This is starting to happen to service jobs now to.. Err, most people put effort into their job, after all, they're easily replaceable, I'd imagine they'd put forth more effort if they were paid a decent wage. How would anyone consider that exploitation? A moral dilemma? I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.

Lmao, go ahead and adjust wages by a state to state level and watch more company's leave the blue city's, God you are dumb.

Greed works both ways, which came first the big box stores with low wages or Sam the butcher or Floyd barber shops with livable wages?

Americans wanted cheap crap they did it to themselves, the big capitalist gave you what you wanted.

So wages shouldn't ever be raised because capitalists will leave? LOL.

YAWN

think Detroit

when the tax base leaves

 

[NYcarbineer]

When you can put a simple drive thru order together without fucking it up, then we'll talk about more pay.

Can we tell that to the millionaire investment bankers and their well paid troops over the real estate/financial market

fuck up?

 

[Freewill]

You won t believe how little 8.25 an hour buys Oxfam America First Person Blog
Disgusting that this is possible in the "richest country in the world"

Cleaning the movie theater is part of my daughter's duties. But does her job actually pay enough to live on? Photo: Mary Babic/Oxfam America
27Tweet

54Like

1+1

For my hard-working family and friends who earn just above the US minimum wage, a paycheck doesn’t go very far.

My daughter struck it lucky when she landed a job for $8.25 an hour at the local movie theater. They pay 25 cents more than the Massachusetts minimum wage (which is already 75 cents more than the federal wage); they don’t charge her for the monogrammed black polo shirt that constitutes her uniform (unlike some businesses); they let her know her hours a few days ahead; and they are, simply put, nice people: film nerds who enjoy keeping an independent theater alive, who don’t mind if she reads a book while sitting in the box office and waiting for the next rush.

Still, it’s a business. Her hours each week never mount up to the point where they’d be responsible for her healthcare (30 hours a week or more); her schedule varies widely; when it’s slow, they let her go (and it’s been a slow year for movies). And, to reiterate: they pay $8.25 an hour.

You can’t blame them; they’re generous at paying more than the legally required wage. But it is, even for my daughter, a measly wage. She lives at home, but she’s scraping together savings for college, living very simply, contributing to the household.

So what her earnings really translate to? I wondered, after seeing this helpful and harrowing piece on What Life Really Costs at $7.25 an Hour.

First, there’s transportation. After taxes, she brings home $7.62 an hour. Last week, after working for 27 hours (and commuting for about 8 hours), she got a check for $205.71. Just to get there and back: Slice the bus fare off the top (2.10 each way; 4.20 round trip; times four): 205.71 – 16.80 = 188.91.

A sandwich = one hour’s work. Some days, when her shift stretches longer than eight hours, she gets a plain chicken sandwich at the place next door: 7.43 (with tax). So she works a full hour to buy a sandwich. Without a drink.

A book = three hours. She loves books and music, and we visit the library every week. But sometimes she likes to buy the ones she loves the very most. Her favorite graphic novelist, Emily Carroll, just published a beautiful new book, Through the Woods. On Amazon, discounted, it’s $18.10. So she worked almost three hours to buy it.

Work shoes cost a day’s pay. We do most of our shopping at Goodwill, but every once in a while, she indulges. She really needed a good pair of shoes as she stands most of the time at work. She got a cheap pair of Nikes at around $50: Basically, a day’s pay.

And what about college tuition? Again, she got lucky: Smith College offered her a whopping scholarship, covering about half the cost. Which left her with a bill of (only) $24,000 for a year, not counting books, art supplies, etc.

So if she wants to cover one year of college – at this deeply discounted price – she’s going to work 3150 hours. Or 61 hours a week for a year. If she wants to go for the full four years… it would take 12,598 hours. Of course, she couldn’t eat. Or pay rent, take the bus, buy shoes, or get her hair cut. At least she can go to the movies…

So she’s lucky in some ways. But so many workers do not enjoy her luck. In fact, the vast majority of low-wage workers do not match this “Poster Child” profile of the minimum wage worker.

Source: the Economic Policy Institute.
Indeed, the average age of low-wage workers is 35. A third have dependent children at home. In our (extremely fortunate)Congressional district, 34,000 working families are using food stamps, and 71,000 are living below the poverty line .

Imagine working for minimum wage in the poorest countries of the world. I suggest she goes and learns a trade, gets a decent job, then completes college.

 

[NYcarbineer]

You do realize, and I don't want to say this since this forum has a thing for personal attacks, that I work in fast food making 7.85 an hour?

And you assume I have a problem with that. I don't. That's more than I have right now.

What I have a problem with is with people in your position demanding career level pay for entry level jobs. I equate that with greed, not a need "to get by." I would be happy to get what I'm paid. I would put more effort into doing my job than demanding a pay raise. I see people making demands of people kind enough to give them any sort of employment as ingrates.

You're not leeching off of anyone, your grandmother is a loving member of your family who is supporting you on her own free will

That is no excuse. To anyone else, this could be considered as exploitation. I see it that way. If I take government assistance, I'm taking her tax dollars. If I'm not on it, I'm still taking her money. That presents a major moral dilemma for me that I can't handle.

upward mobility is a joke..

Of course it's a joke if you're just standing there complaining about it. It's all about effort.

I don't want career level pay, I believe wages should be adjusted to the cost of living on a state by state basis. Nothing is perfect. The contradictions of capital are coming out in full force, things are getting worse worldwide in terms of income inequality, resource waste, etc, etc.. Greed? The greedy ones are the capitalist dogs who moan and bitch about the end of days if taxes were raised b 2%, the dogs who mercilessly exploit the third world to sell cheap products in the first world, the ones who move jobs overseas to avoid paying decent wages or providing benefits.. This is starting to happen to service jobs now to.. Err, most people put effort into their job, after all, they're easily replaceable, I'd imagine they'd put forth more effort if they were paid a decent wage. How would anyone consider that exploitation? A moral dilemma? I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.

Lmao, go ahead and adjust wages by a state to state level and watch more company's leave the blue city's, God you are dumb.

Greed works both ways, which came first the big box stores with low wages or Sam the butcher or Floyd barber shops with livable wages?

Americans wanted cheap crap they did it to themselves, the big capitalist gave you what you wanted.

But if you raise the minimum wage nationally, one state can't cannibalize workers from another state.

 

[NYcarbineer]

You won t believe how little 8.25 an hour buys Oxfam America First Person Blog
Disgusting that this is possible in the "richest country in the world"

Cleaning the movie theater is part of my daughter's duties. But does her job actually pay enough to live on? Photo: Mary Babic/Oxfam America
27Tweet

54Like

1+1

For my hard-working family and friends who earn just above the US minimum wage, a paycheck doesn’t go very far.

My daughter struck it lucky when she landed a job for $8.25 an hour at the local movie theater. They pay 25 cents more than the Massachusetts minimum wage (which is already 75 cents more than the federal wage); they don’t charge her for the monogrammed black polo shirt that constitutes her uniform (unlike some businesses); they let her know her hours a few days ahead; and they are, simply put, nice people: film nerds who enjoy keeping an independent theater alive, who don’t mind if she reads a book while sitting in the box office and waiting for the next rush.

Still, it’s a business. Her hours each week never mount up to the point where they’d be responsible for her healthcare (30 hours a week or more); her schedule varies widely; when it’s slow, they let her go (and it’s been a slow year for movies). And, to reiterate: they pay $8.25 an hour.

You can’t blame them; they’re generous at paying more than the legally required wage. But it is, even for my daughter, a measly wage. She lives at home, but she’s scraping together savings for college, living very simply, contributing to the household.

So what her earnings really translate to? I wondered, after seeing this helpful and harrowing piece on What Life Really Costs at $7.25 an Hour.

First, there’s transportation. After taxes, she brings home $7.62 an hour. Last week, after working for 27 hours (and commuting for about 8 hours), she got a check for $205.71. Just to get there and back: Slice the bus fare off the top (2.10 each way; 4.20 round trip; times four): 205.71 – 16.80 = 188.91.

A sandwich = one hour’s work. Some days, when her shift stretches longer than eight hours, she gets a plain chicken sandwich at the place next door: 7.43 (with tax). So she works a full hour to buy a sandwich. Without a drink.

A book = three hours. She loves books and music, and we visit the library every week. But sometimes she likes to buy the ones she loves the very most. Her favorite graphic novelist, Emily Carroll, just published a beautiful new book, Through the Woods. On Amazon, discounted, it’s $18.10. So she worked almost three hours to buy it.

Work shoes cost a day’s pay. We do most of our shopping at Goodwill, but every once in a while, she indulges. She really needed a good pair of shoes as she stands most of the time at work. She got a cheap pair of Nikes at around $50: Basically, a day’s pay.

And what about college tuition? Again, she got lucky: Smith College offered her a whopping scholarship, covering about half the cost. Which left her with a bill of (only) $24,000 for a year, not counting books, art supplies, etc.

So if she wants to cover one year of college – at this deeply discounted price – she’s going to work 3150 hours. Or 61 hours a week for a year. If she wants to go for the full four years… it would take 12,598 hours. Of course, she couldn’t eat. Or pay rent, take the bus, buy shoes, or get her hair cut. At least she can go to the movies…

So she’s lucky in some ways. But so many workers do not enjoy her luck. In fact, the vast majority of low-wage workers do not match this “Poster Child” profile of the minimum wage worker.

Source: the Economic Policy Institute.
Indeed, the average age of low-wage workers is 35. A third have dependent children at home. In our (extremely fortunate)Congressional district, 34,000 working families are using food stamps, and 71,000 are living below the poverty line .

Imagine working for minimum wage in the poorest countries of the world. I suggest she goes and learns a trade, gets a decent job, then completes college.

How do you propose a fulltime minimum wage worker pay for school?

 

[Socialist]

You won t believe how little 8.25 an hour buys Oxfam America First Person Blog
Disgusting that this is possible in the "richest country in the world"

Cleaning the movie theater is part of my daughter's duties. But does her job actually pay enough to live on? Photo: Mary Babic/Oxfam America
27Tweet

54Like

1+1

For my hard-working family and friends who earn just above the US minimum wage, a paycheck doesn’t go very far.

My daughter struck it lucky when she landed a job for $8.25 an hour at the local movie theater. They pay 25 cents more than the Massachusetts minimum wage (which is already 75 cents more than the federal wage); they don’t charge her for the monogrammed black polo shirt that constitutes her uniform (unlike some businesses); they let her know her hours a few days ahead; and they are, simply put, nice people: film nerds who enjoy keeping an independent theater alive, who don’t mind if she reads a book while sitting in the box office and waiting for the next rush.

Still, it’s a business. Her hours each week never mount up to the point where they’d be responsible for her healthcare (30 hours a week or more); her schedule varies widely; when it’s slow, they let her go (and it’s been a slow year for movies). And, to reiterate: they pay $8.25 an hour.

You can’t blame them; they’re generous at paying more than the legally required wage. But it is, even for my daughter, a measly wage. She lives at home, but she’s scraping together savings for college, living very simply, contributing to the household.

So what her earnings really translate to? I wondered, after seeing this helpful and harrowing piece on What Life Really Costs at $7.25 an Hour.

First, there’s transportation. After taxes, she brings home $7.62 an hour. Last week, after working for 27 hours (and commuting for about 8 hours), she got a check for $205.71. Just to get there and back: Slice the bus fare off the top (2.10 each way; 4.20 round trip; times four): 205.71 – 16.80 = 188.91.

A sandwich = one hour’s work. Some days, when her shift stretches longer than eight hours, she gets a plain chicken sandwich at the place next door: 7.43 (with tax). So she works a full hour to buy a sandwich. Without a drink.

A book = three hours. She loves books and music, and we visit the library every week. But sometimes she likes to buy the ones she loves the very most. Her favorite graphic novelist, Emily Carroll, just published a beautiful new book, Through the Woods. On Amazon, discounted, it’s $18.10. So she worked almost three hours to buy it.

Work shoes cost a day’s pay. We do most of our shopping at Goodwill, but every once in a while, she indulges. She really needed a good pair of shoes as she stands most of the time at work. She got a cheap pair of Nikes at around $50: Basically, a day’s pay.

And what about college tuition? Again, she got lucky: Smith College offered her a whopping scholarship, covering about half the cost. Which left her with a bill of (only) $24,000 for a year, not counting books, art supplies, etc.

So if she wants to cover one year of college – at this deeply discounted price – she’s going to work 3150 hours. Or 61 hours a week for a year. If she wants to go for the full four years… it would take 12,598 hours. Of course, she couldn’t eat. Or pay rent, take the bus, buy shoes, or get her hair cut. At least she can go to the movies…

So she’s lucky in some ways. But so many workers do not enjoy her luck. In fact, the vast majority of low-wage workers do not match this “Poster Child” profile of the minimum wage worker.

Source: the Economic Policy Institute.
Indeed, the average age of low-wage workers is 35. A third have dependent children at home. In our (extremely fortunate)Congressional district, 34,000 working families are using food stamps, and 71,000 are living below the poverty line .

Imagine working for minimum wage in the poorest countries of the world. I suggest she goes and learns a trade, gets a decent job, then completes college.

Most poor countries don't even get a minimum wage, if we're talking really poor.. Regardless, this sounds like one of those typical posts where if poverty isn't bad compared to the Congo, fuck Em. Oh, go through college while making 8.00 an hour? Wow, so easy. Not like prices are skyrocketing and more and more college graduates can't find jobs.

 

[Freewill]

Billions live in poverty, many working 60+ hours a week to barely scrape by.

There are 330 million people in America... so your math is off by a few orders of magnitude. No, billions are not in poverty.

Wasn't just talking about America, genius. Unless only the poor in America are whiners, in which case, the usual right wing hatred of the poor.

And yet it has been the dems in charge for the last 8 years. Everyone should hate the poor, no one should think being poor is the proper way of life. Instead the democrats foster people being poor, they love poor people the want to be the adult taking care of the poor people.

 

[NYcarbineer]

You do realize, and I don't want to say this since this forum has a thing for personal attacks, that I work in fast food making 7.85 an hour?

And you assume I have a problem with that. I don't. That's more than I have right now.

What I have a problem with is with people in your position demanding career level pay for entry level jobs. I equate that with greed, not a need "to get by." I would be happy to get what I'm paid. I would put more effort into doing my job than demanding a pay raise. I see people making demands of people kind enough to give them any sort of employment as ingrates.

You're not leeching off of anyone, your grandmother is a loving member of your family who is supporting you on her own free will

That is no excuse. To anyone else, this could be considered as exploitation. I see it that way. If I take government assistance, I'm taking her tax dollars. If I'm not on it, I'm still taking her money. That presents a major moral dilemma for me that I can't handle.

upward mobility is a joke..

Of course it's a joke if you're just standing there complaining about it. It's all about effort.

I don't want career level pay, I believe wages should be adjusted to the cost of living on a state by state basis. Nothing is perfect. The contradictions of capital are coming out in full force, things are getting worse worldwide in terms of income inequality, resource waste, etc, etc.. Greed? The greedy ones are the capitalist dogs who moan and bitch about the end of days if taxes were raised b 2%, the dogs who mercilessly exploit the third world to sell cheap products in the first world, the ones who move jobs overseas to avoid paying decent wages or providing benefits.. This is starting to happen to service jobs now to.. Err, most people put effort into their job, after all, they're easily replaceable, I'd imagine they'd put forth more effort if they were paid a decent wage. How would anyone consider that exploitation? A moral dilemma? I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.

Lmao, go ahead and adjust wages by a state to state level and watch more company's leave the blue city's, God you are dumb.

Greed works both ways, which came first the big box stores with low wages or Sam the butcher or Floyd barber shops with livable wages?

Americans wanted cheap crap they did it to themselves, the big capitalist gave you what you wanted.

So wages shouldn't ever be raised because capitalists will leave? LOL.

YAWN

think Detroit

when the tax base leaves

So you think an influx of sub-minimum wage jobs can fix Detroit?

lol, good one, imbecile.

 

[bedowin62]

The Soviets had a word for the Op and people like Carbineer


useful idiot

 

[bedowin62]

Urban Dictionary: Useful idiot
Urban Dictionary July 28 PlanickingUseful+idiot

• Cached
• Similar

Urban Dictionary
Loading...
If you have never heard the term “useful idiot” it was the attitude held by Vladimir Lenin towards communist sympathizers in the West (America). While Lenin and ...

 

[Socialist]

Billions live in poverty, many working 60+ hours a week to barely scrape by.

There are 330 million people in America... so your math is off by a few orders of magnitude. No, billions are not in poverty.

Wasn't just talking about America, genius. Unless only the poor in America are whiners, in which case, the usual right wing hatred of the poor.

And yet it has been the dems in charge for the last 8 years. Everyone should hate the poor, no one should think being poor is the proper way of life. Instead the democrats foster people being poor, they love poor people the want to be the adult taking care of the poor people.

Err, you do realize their are two parties with people in office voting on things? One party is not responsible for everything. People should hate the poor? Jesus.. Templar was telling me right wingers don't hate poor people..

 

[NYcarbineer]

Billions live in poverty, many working 60+ hours a week to barely scrape by.

There are 330 million people in America... so your math is off by a few orders of magnitude. No, billions are not in poverty.

Wasn't just talking about America, genius. Unless only the poor in America are whiners, in which case, the usual right wing hatred of the poor.

And yet it has been the dems in charge for the last 8 years. Everyone should hate the poor, no one should think being poor is the proper way of life. Instead the democrats foster people being poor, they love poor people the want to be the adult taking care of the poor people.

So Christians and Christian churches should abandon there destructive policies of helping the poor?

lol, good one, chowderhead.

 

[Socialist]

The Soviets had a word for the Op and people like Carbineer


useful idiot

Their is literally no evidence Lenin said that, at all.

 

[Freewill]

You won t believe how little 8.25 an hour buys Oxfam America First Person Blog
Disgusting that this is possible in the "richest country in the world"

Cleaning the movie theater is part of my daughter's duties. But does her job actually pay enough to live on? Photo: Mary Babic/Oxfam America
27Tweet

54Like

1+1

For my hard-working family and friends who earn just above the US minimum wage, a paycheck doesn’t go very far.

My daughter struck it lucky when she landed a job for $8.25 an hour at the local movie theater. They pay 25 cents more than the Massachusetts minimum wage (which is already 75 cents more than the federal wage); they don’t charge her for the monogrammed black polo shirt that constitutes her uniform (unlike some businesses); they let her know her hours a few days ahead; and they are, simply put, nice people: film nerds who enjoy keeping an independent theater alive, who don’t mind if she reads a book while sitting in the box office and waiting for the next rush.

Still, it’s a business. Her hours each week never mount up to the point where they’d be responsible for her healthcare (30 hours a week or more); her schedule varies widely; when it’s slow, they let her go (and it’s been a slow year for movies). And, to reiterate: they pay $8.25 an hour.

You can’t blame them; they’re generous at paying more than the legally required wage. But it is, even for my daughter, a measly wage. She lives at home, but she’s scraping together savings for college, living very simply, contributing to the household.

So what her earnings really translate to? I wondered, after seeing this helpful and harrowing piece on What Life Really Costs at $7.25 an Hour.

First, there’s transportation. After taxes, she brings home $7.62 an hour. Last week, after working for 27 hours (and commuting for about 8 hours), she got a check for $205.71. Just to get there and back: Slice the bus fare off the top (2.10 each way; 4.20 round trip; times four): 205.71 – 16.80 = 188.91.

A sandwich = one hour’s work. Some days, when her shift stretches longer than eight hours, she gets a plain chicken sandwich at the place next door: 7.43 (with tax). So she works a full hour to buy a sandwich. Without a drink.

A book = three hours. She loves books and music, and we visit the library every week. But sometimes she likes to buy the ones she loves the very most. Her favorite graphic novelist, Emily Carroll, just published a beautiful new book, Through the Woods. On Amazon, discounted, it’s $18.10. So she worked almost three hours to buy it.

Work shoes cost a day’s pay. We do most of our shopping at Goodwill, but every once in a while, she indulges. She really needed a good pair of shoes as she stands most of the time at work. She got a cheap pair of Nikes at around $50: Basically, a day’s pay.

And what about college tuition? Again, she got lucky: Smith College offered her a whopping scholarship, covering about half the cost. Which left her with a bill of (only) $24,000 for a year, not counting books, art supplies, etc.

So if she wants to cover one year of college – at this deeply discounted price – she’s going to work 3150 hours. Or 61 hours a week for a year. If she wants to go for the full four years… it would take 12,598 hours. Of course, she couldn’t eat. Or pay rent, take the bus, buy shoes, or get her hair cut. At least she can go to the movies…

So she’s lucky in some ways. But so many workers do not enjoy her luck. In fact, the vast majority of low-wage workers do not match this “Poster Child” profile of the minimum wage worker.

Source: the Economic Policy Institute.
Indeed, the average age of low-wage workers is 35. A third have dependent children at home. In our (extremely fortunate)Congressional district, 34,000 working families are using food stamps, and 71,000 are living below the poverty line .

Imagine working for minimum wage in the poorest countries of the world. I suggest she goes and learns a trade, gets a decent job, then completes college.

Most poor countries don't even get a minimum wage, if we're talking really poor.. Regardless, this sounds like one of those typical posts where if poverty isn't bad compared to the Congo, fuck Em. Oh, go through college while making 8.00 an hour? Wow, so easy. Not like prices are skyrocketing and more and more college graduates can't find jobs.

How much is unskilled labor worth these days? It gets cheaper everyday that the nation floods the border with unskilled and uneducated labor. The girl in the story you provided has to get off her ass and get a real job. Anyone can do the job she is performing. We all started at the bottom, at least she has her parents home to live in but by the story that is all the help they are giving.