The Living Wage Calculator (MIT)

[inanna]

Updated (3-24-14)

While the minimum wage sets an earnings threshold under which our society is not willing to let families slip, it fails to approximate the basic expenses of families in 2013. Consequently, many working adults must seek public assistance and/or hold multiple jobs in order to afford to feed, cloth, house, and provide medical care for themselves and their families.

Establishing a living wage, an approximate income needed to meet a family’s basic needs, would enable the working poor to achieve financial independence while maintaining housing and food security. When coupled with lowered expenses, for childcare and housing in particular, the living wage might also free up resources for savings, investment, and/or for the purchase of capital assets (e.g. provisions for retirement or home purchases) that build wealth and ensure long-term financial security.

An analysis of the living wage using updated data from 2013 and compiling geographically specific expenditure data for food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, and other basic necessities, finds that:

The minimum wage does not provide a living wage for most American families. A typical family of four (two working adults, two children) needs to work more than 3 full-time minimum-wage jobs (a 68-hour work week per working adult) to earn a living wage. Across all family sizes, the living wage exceeds the poverty threshold, often used to identify need. This means that families earning between the poverty threshold ($23,283 for two working adults, two children) and the median living wage ($51,224 for two working adults, two children per year before taxes), may fall short of the income and assistance they require to meet their basic needs.

The cost of housing and childcare for families with children exceeds all other expenses. In the United State, a typical family of four (two working adults, two children) spends 21% of their after-tax income on childcare and another 21% on housing. Faced with tradeoffs, a second working adult must earn at least $11,195 on average in order to cover the costs of childcare and other increased expenses when they enter the workforce. Single-parent families need to work almost twice as hard as families with two working adults to earn the living wage. A single-mother with two children earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour needs to work 125 hours per week, more hours than there are in a 5-day week, to earn a living wage.

Calculations by state at link:

http://livingwage.mit.edu/

I can dream, right?

Edited to add: This post in Good Reads really impacted me:

The Growing Degradation of Work and Life, and What We Might Do to End It

[YarnAddict]

1. I checked it out--

--and I'm just wondering if the proposal is that people with children be paid MORE than people with no dependents, because they need more???

[inanna]

2. The idea is to pay wages that lift EVERYBODY above the poverty threshold

and into economic independence.

How I wish this could happen.

[Thinkingabout]

3. As a guest on FOX said one could live on minimum wage and still save $100 a month.

What he did not push was the person would have to work 16 hours a day. I still don't know where the $100 a month was going to happen. This is the disillusion the GOP lives with.

[Lucky Luciano]

8. He left out the part about living in a tent or your parent's basement. nt

[Thinkingabout]

9. We know they lie on FOX, and in fact this was a financial guy talking, I guess if we don't

eat and breath we could "live comfortably".

[inanna]

12. Exactly.

It's impossible to save anything earning the minimum wage today.

Years ago, it might have been a different story, but not now. The cost of just scraping by is simply too high.

[inanna]

4. 'Working for nothing': Canada joins global minimum wage debate (Globe & Mail)

Published Sunday, Jan. 26 2014, 7:30 PM EST

Grace Iyabosa sits with hospital patients through the long nights, close at hand in case they need help.

The single mom works eight- or 12-hour shifts in Ottawa, on call, which means she often has to scramble to find child care for her two kids, ages seven and 11. She earns minimum wage of $10.25 an hour. After paying for food, babysitting and more than $600 for rent, there is nothing left at the end of the month.

“I don’t want to be at home.

I don’t want to be on welfare. I want to be a good role model for my kids.

“But it’s like I’m working for nothing,” said Ms. Iyabosa, 41.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/working-for-nothing-canada-joins-global-minimum-wage-debate/article16508375/?page=all

[inanna]

5. As a doctor, I know too well why the minimum wage needs to rise (Globe & Mail)

Published Monday, Jan. 27 2014, 8:24 AM EST

At some point during almost every day in my office, I feel frustrated and powerless. At that moment, I find myself standing with my patient on the edge of a chasm: ill health lies in the crevice below, good health lies on the other side. And we cannot, between us, build the bridge to get across. We know what that bridge looks like, but we do not have the materials to build it.

I have stood at that edge with Fatima, a single mother with two kids in school, who works at Tim Horton’s full time, for minimum wage, at $10.25 an hour. She suffers from low back pain and arthritis. She can barely pay her rent. She has no time to see a chiropractor, to exercise. She can’t afford medications to treat her pain. She often has trouble feeding her family at the end of the month, and eats less herself to make sure her kids get enough.

What she needs to build her bridge is clear: a higher income. She could build it if the minimum wage was set to bring her over the poverty line. That she has to live in this way with a full-time job, in a wealthy country, is a tragedy. That we set our minimum wage to benefit companies’ bottom lines, and not to ensure low-wage workers are able to stay healthy, and to afford the basics of food, shelter, clothing and other necessities, is both a tragedy and a public health travesty.

The health evidence is clear: Fatima and her children are at extremely high risk of developing health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental illness, all due to their inadequate income. I cannot prescribe drugs to alleviate that risk.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/as-a-doctor-i-know-too-well-why-the-minimum-wage-needs-to-rise/article16516712/

[Orrex]

6. Whoops--dumbass.

Maybe I'll read next time before posting.

[KamaAina]

7. Housing for $1032 a month in Silicon Valley?

http://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/06085

Good luck with that! This single guy is now paying $1375!

[inanna]

11. Hi

This article is about two years old. Some parts have been updated, but I'm not sure about the calculations themselves. In general though, I think the calculations here suggest that shelter costs should not exceed 25% of income - or that incomes need to rise to support that.

Rents are rising like crazy in my area as well. It's very worrisome, and I'm getting super stressed out about it.

Sorry to hear yours is that high. That seems astronomical to me.

Sometimes I just feel as though there is no hope and nothing to look forward to.

[liberal_at_heart]

10. this is why I get so tired of Democrats fighting for a dollar here and a dollar there

for minimum wage. We need a living wage and it is not $9/hr.