Living wage?

Question

All this talk about a living wage, how much exactly for one person would that be. Seems people think minimum wage workers arent making it - fine ill accpet that one, but teachers and police officers? I havent known any POOR ones. So in your opinion what exactly is a living wage, in annual salary numbers?

I want to see how close I am to the poor house by you people's opinions.

How much should a single person be making to "survive" in your standards?

Answer 1

A living wage will vary depending on where you live. I know about 3 years ago $13.35 an hour was considered a living wage in Burlington Vermont.

Answer 2

Please keep in mind that the minimum wage ONLY outlaws jobs. It does not create anything. If the minimum wage is $7 per hour, it follows that anyone who only has the skills to perform a job for $6, $5, $4....per hour remains unemployed. These people would have worked for $6 or $5... per hour, but because of the minimum wage law, they are forbidden. Raising the minimum wage merely creates more unemployed people. Just imagine the number of unemployed if the minimum wage were $70 per hour or better yet $700 dollars per hour. The economy would grind to a halt. A sure way to eliminate tons of unemployment would be to remove minimum wage laws and allow people to voluntarily contract with their employers on a mutually agreed upon wage. As for something called a "living wage," this is totally subjective. There are about 300 million Americans who live 300 million different lives. To try to pick some type of "living wage" is a total impossibility.

Answer 3

I haven't seen any poor police or teachers, but I also haven't seen any rich ones (except for maybe a few corrupt police). Face it people don't go into teaching or public service to get rich. Teachers have to get the same education and pay the same student loans as other professionals yet their income is much lower. Most teachers and other public servants give a lot of their own time and personal resource sand their only reward is personal satisfaction. Of course knowing that you made a difference in educating youth is pretty noble personal satisfaction. Most teachers and public servants have families of their own and if they are making anything under 50,000 they are probably under paid. For a single person with an entry level job that requires no more than a high school diploma in the private sector, I'd say anything less than 25,000 is pretty low, 18,000 is about minimal survival. Add about 10,000 a year to any figure to cover the cost of minimal medical coverage.

Answer 4

It does depend on where you live, the state, small town or large city, etc. I would also say that many people in the upper 5% of of upper income earners(making 150k or more) believe they're not "rich". The top 1.5% make over $250k and I bet many of those think ther're middle class. Because the costs of private schools, expensive cars & houses, they may indeed not "feel" rich at all and believe they are middle class! To survive, also depends on whether there are 2 earners in the household. One person making minimum wage will have a heckuva time but two at $7 each hourly make the same as one person making $14 an hour(it would be understandable that person feels poor). So the single person is just as poor.

My personal guidelines, after reading a number of opinions on what the categories are-is this:

Under $7500-poor $7500 to 25,000 working poor $25k to 70k is middle class...

Answer 5

been reading your questions and you seem to be snowed by this idea that free market is a totally good thing. Consider this. Is it a good idea tfor people to make enough money that the only thing left to buy is power over other people. Wouldn't a free market mean corporations conducting themselves in a no trace camping way, instead of sucking up the planet and depositing it in a spitune. You know the laws against child labor, and creating a safe work place, and forcing corporations to not leave poisens where future peoples lives get ruined, were all past because corporations were doing all these things in a socially responsible way. They were past because the greedy take advantage and since accumulation is not restricted then people get this idea they are somehow entitled to abuse everyone else. Do you think one person could acctually be worth lets say 1000 times more than any other one person. That is a ludicrice idea. Put those two peol;le on a deserted island and you would see the actual differance in worth and it would not be much. Economics should more closely reflect actual worth. Standard of living should go up for everyone as we progress into the future. People should be provided with the necessary whatever to develop up to their potential. Our system does not do these things. It provides a rich get richer and poor get poorer situation. If a person exists and does not use his potential we all in the end suffer. I used to care for at risk kids and there is a lot of untapped potential there which ends up flipping burgers and trapped in dead end inescapable life, of minimum wage. I myself live comfortably on $700 a month and everyone around me gets less than they could from me because I simply do not want to contribute to a society where people make money by having money and and using people. I saved the state I lived in $200000 minimum a year by using my masters degree to help children who would most likely turn into prison rats costing society at that time $40000 a year per person. I got paid same as the teachers in my area did. I look around and see this waste caused by greed and other sinful drives and sorry I do not want to contribute. There should be a law to limit accumulation and in the end the untapped talents would come out from behing the counter and we would all live a better life. Check out the Hutterites, nobody is taking advantage there and every year there standard of living gets better.

You ask about a living wage my answer is that makes no differance it is the maximum wage we need to set and the rest will fall into place. We live on a planet where some children have no clean drinking water and others go to water parks to play in it. It's not like we could not furnish drinking water to all the potential Einstiens who die b4 they are 5. We just have a warped idea of what is right and wrong and wrong. Of my $700 I give $50 to a group working on that problem. Instead of worrying about how little can we get by with paying our brother we ought to be aiming at how can we unlock all the wasted potential. But we don't because we are a sinful bunch of selfish bastards. Vote for Bush this has been a paid political advertisement.

Answer 6

Someone here made a very good point that this issue is VERY much regional... taking into account, local rents and costs.

Well, first let's look at the US Poverty Line... HHS defines "poverty" for a single person household in the 48 contiguous states as an annual income of below $9,800... SERIOUSLY !!

In my area of California, my RENT is $10,680 per year... add food, utilities, basic clothing... and ignore GAS, a CAR, HEALTH & MEDICAL... I'm up to a minimum needed income of $15,000

Using then a figure of 255 work days per year (52x5 less the 5 federal holidays) one has to make $58.88 per day or $7.35 an hour to LIVE...

Now, add on 30 percent to make up for the income, FICA, SSA, and State tax... I need $9.55 an hour... or $19,500 a year.

That still doesn't give me medical or health-care, entertainment, a car, gas, any form of vacation...

Thank God I make more.

Answer 7

Depends where you live, but in Nashville Tennessee you need to make about $12 an hour to keep a roof over your head and eat.

Answer 8

I'd say 20 G's just to survive,30 g's and you'll have a crap box for a car,40 and you'll be doing average.....Love the dress!!!

Answer 9

No less than twenty five thousand a year for a single person.

Answer 10

at least 10 to 12.00 a hour to survive