How far does $400. American dollars go in Mexico?

Question

I really want to know! $400 a week is a above average pay check for min. wage Americans, before taxes of course. The standard cost of living puts those drawing min. wage below poverty level in our country. But who cares? On $400 a week we're expected to pay taxes, buy health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, renters insurance, tag and license our vehicles, pay the school system extra to get our high school kids to school and back
on the public school bus, extra for high school sports and band etc., pay our rent, pay our bills, feed our families, and continue to watch the cost of living rise. I'm ranting but hey, I'm mad as hell. I really want to know how much illegals can accomplish on 400 american dollars a week. I'll almost bet they live better than I do and struggle less. I'm curious what the conversion rate is.

Answer 1

Many Americans work for minimum wage or just a little more. There has been shows on it. And on Oprah once a guy and his wife tried to live on min wage together (both working) and they couldn't. One hospital visit wiped them out.
I believe many live this way in Mexico--no all-and they do have a big middle class. Just like here, we have many poor. Somehow they feel it is wrong for them to live -poor.
And they come here. The trouble is-it is hurting our poor-who can never get a good cost of living raise. And they are entitle to more benefits than most can get. So in a sense their poor are pushing are poor into homelessness. And they are creating more to be poor here..And our middle class is feeling the pain too.
I am sorry but I feel they have to be poor there and learn to make do with what they have. We do. My purse is about empty and their not helping me. I want a future too.
If they were truly starving-than please eat. Your in dire need of Medical -go to a hospital. but just to want more-no.
I can't help the world-be nice if I could.

Maybe they need to take those lawn jobs, and maid jobs-and go work at Mexico's resorts. Move there-they have high employee turnover too and often need help. Or do what the rest of us do--make do in there own country.

Answer 2

In Mexico $400 is about 4000 pesos which is a lot because they usually get paid about 300 pesos a week which is roughly $30(they can get paid more, depends on the kind of job they do put the factory jobs usually pay that to start off). But that doesn't mean that they live better than us they live just like us which in the Mexican economy is actually very good . I think that it depends on where the money is going, my family lives in the border and what we buy their for thirty dollars is the same thing that we buy here for thirty dollars.Can you imagine having all those same bills and only having thirty dollars a week to pay them,I think that you would understand why many of them come to work here. I believe that immigration is very good for this country because just like you said about the cost of living rising without them it would increase rapidly( all those people complain now about all those illegals but when they see that it will cost them twice as much to go out to dinner or get their grass cut or get child care they will say that they want them back). I see that people complain immigrants are a drain to the U.S economy but before they say all this they should do research first.Many of the immigrants that live here(illegal or not) pay their taxes and because they may be illegal they can't get the same tax credit that everyone else or they may even get anything back. The money that the government receives from all those people that can't file or don't get all their money back far surpasses the amount that they spend on education or health care on them.

Answer 3

The one thing to understand here first is that in America you get paid by the hour. In Mexico you get paid by the day, working 8 hours per day. To complicate it even further, the country is divided into three zones, the a, b and c zones, (don't ask me whose 'bright' idea this was). So the minimum wage is the least you can get paid for working in Mexico for one day.

The minimum wage for zone a is 48.7 pesos roughly 4.42 dollars, for zone b it's 47.16, roughly 4.28 dollars and for zone c it's 45.81, roughly 4.16 dollars. Do your numbers and you will discover how much they earn in a week. It's a joke. Try living on that. Of course this is for unskilled workers, companies pay them two wages per day or more, and the higher your position the more wages per day you earn. This does not apply to top executives who earn at least 327 minimum wages per day. I'm not kidding, the differences are staggering, and unfair.

An average paycheck of 400 dollars per week is something 95 percent of the Mexicans never see. They might earn that in a month, certainly never in a week. Of course if they are living in America they earn in dollars and spend in dollars, but they do tend to help each other out, in any way they can, they are very smart when it comes to shopping for groceries and spend wisely, and send money home to their families in Mexico.

Illegal immigrants also get lower wages than an average American and they do those jobs Americans don't want. It seems you can't live with them, you can't live without them.

You complain about the rising cost of living, Mexicans have lived with that for over 30 years. For the past 6 years things have been kind of steady but the price increases are there. Mexicans also have this tabulator called the basic grocery list, meaning the minimum items needed to feed yourself, beans, rice, tortillas, soft drinks, eggs, sugar, cooking oil, salt, tomatoes, onions, garlic, chiles. The tomato changes price every month sometimes up sometimes down, the rest of the stuff rises. Gas and electricity are very expensive in Mexico, water is also expensive, property taxes on cars, insurance, the rent. The vast majority have no medical insurance or social security to help them, and medicines have increased tremendously. 400 american dollars a week will go a long way in Mexico. They struggle just as hard or harder than you do and live far worse than you do because they do not earn 400 dollars a week.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

its 11.75 pesos per dollar. Since most people dont have rent to pay (they build and own their homes, not with a mortgage) they have to pay electricity, they dont all have cars, but if you did then you would generally pay more for gas then we do here. You would probably need to pay cash for the car too. You would need to pay for your kids to go to public school. And for their uniforms. Any electronics you buy would cost more than they do here, think twice as much. Not everything is cheap in Mexico. You could probably live pretty well in Mexico on 400/week, but you would not live the same lifestyle. You would have enough for food if you have a place to stay and bills, but you definately would not live like a king. Why are you so jealous that they come here and work 2 or 3 jobs and make more than you? You were born with the opportunities and if you want to make the same, you are welcome to work 2 or 3 jobs!

Answer 5

It goes a darn sight further in Mexico than it does in the U.S. ... all the people who whine about the poverty in Mexico and why they can't live on Mexican wages totally disregard the fact that a dollar in Mexico buys you at least twice or three times as much as it does in the United States ... so yes, the illegals who come here from Mexico want to make money ... they don't want to contribute to this society or pay taxes if they can avoid it .... which they seem to be able to do, no problem ....

Answer 6

The conversion rate for pesos is 10 times the dollar so dollars in mexico could buy 10 times as many things.

Answer 7

its between 8 and 10 pesos per dollar

Answer 8

$400 = about 4000 pesos. they can get a lot for that!

Answer 9

It will go as far as the ILLEGAL Mexican can bring it into America. Then it becomes common currency.

Answer 10

maybe about $40?.... i could be wrong