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Uncategorized Wednesday, May 30th 2012 at 12:35 pm

A 40 Hour Work Week on Minimum Wage Cannot Afford a Two Bedroom Apartment in the United States

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Hey guys, just because you might’ve been having a good day, here’s a depressing chart about the quality of apartment life in the United States. Whether it’s somewhere expensive like New York, or somewhere cheaper like Ohio, minimum wage in any state in the country cannot afford a two bedroom apartment.

If you’ve ever been apartment hunting, you probably already know that it ain’t no picnic, but the above chart lets you know, at least, that it ain’t no picnic anywhere else. The minimum amount of hours working on minimum wage that can afford a two bedroom apartment is 70 hours per week, while the more “attractive” states, like California, Florida, and New York require over 88 work hours per week. If you’re wondering, there are only 168 hours in a week. If you pulled down minimum wage in New York City, and tried to afford a two bedroom apartment, you’d be working more hours (88) per week than you wouldn’t be working (80). If you’re trying to sleep by the old standard of 8 hours of sleep per night, you’d be sleeping 56 hours per week, which leaves you with only 32 hours of leisure time over the course of seven days.

Now, it’s worth noting that not everyone making minimum wage would be trying to afford a two bedroom apartment by their lonesome, and generally speaking, people attempting to rent a two bedroom apartment would probably have a roommate who also has some kind of income. However, there are situations wherein a roommate that pulls down an income isn’t possible, such as a single parent that needs another bedroom for a child.

The numbers in the above chart utilize the list of minimum wages by state found over on Wikipedia, coupled with any given state’s Fair Market Rent figure. The FMR system provides a handy set of menus that allows one to check out the average rent of any given area in a state. Play around with that if you want to see how much cheaper life would be somewhere else, but be warned, it can get pretty upsetting that a four bedroom apartment near a beach in some other state is cheaper than your one-and-a-half bedroom, two roommate apartment where all the windows somehow face a brick wall.

(Occupy Raleigh Facebook via We Party Patriots)

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  • Tincan

    So, everyone in the Universe is entitled to a nice two bedroom apartment? I’ll have to check my birth certificate and read the fine print…

  • Ruth Ames Langstraat

    Expecting a two bedroom apartment may not be realistic, but it’s not ostentatious either. I’d be interested in seeing how this compared to studio apts. 

  • Nope

    Yeah it probably says something right under the part where it points out that you were born an idiot.

  • Tincan

    Ah, got it – thanks. Some of us are born idiots and some of us are born entitled: that clears it up for me.

  • Troyldailey

    Hey, you know what?  Usually 1 bedrooms are only about $100-200 cheaper….which means you still can’t afford one on minimum…stupid nit.

  • Dr Coene

    Let me guess. You’re a big “the wealthy deserve their tax cuts” kinda guy. Amirite? Lol.

  • http://twitter.com/TwitchingCheese Twitching Cheese

    Huh, so in Hawaii you literally could not afford it since you would need to work more hours than there are in a week.

  • Maksim Vi.

    Where did he say that?

  • 1h8fulkat

    Lesson Learned…if you want to live in an apartment in PA that is more expensive than $263/mo then GET A REAL JOB!

  • Notmyemail

    He said “I don’t care about poor people, so give tax cuts to the rich and tax the middle class only” when he stated that minimum wage shouldn’t be increased because CEO’s aren’t rich enough. I’m paraphrasing here.

  • Conflction

    Bingo. Cause if you tax them too much, than they won’t have insentive to make investments in this country. M I Rite?

  • Tjames

    I know in my area it is cheaper to buy a house than to rent an apartment. Average price for a 2 bedroom apartment is $800 a month. My mortgage is only $500 and I’ll actually get that money back.

    But I agree that so many in this country believe they are entitled to things like a nice apartment, instead of being forced to be wise with their money (and yes, I think rich should get a break. If my boss got a tax break, I might get a raise.)

  • opisatotalfaggot

    original post is true, if we’re ever gonna compete with china the workers get 15 minute naps on the assembly lines every 31 hours and 45 minutes then its back to another shift, that covers both their shelter concerns and leisure hours.

  • Jack Bond

    Oh my! So in hyper-liberal states like New York and California where minimum wage is launched into space and restrictions are put on landlords, it’s still harder to afford an apartment. DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING!

    Lucky for me, it’s not hard to find an income-earning roommate when you’re gay.

  • Rachel Gitlevich

    Where did you get “universe” from? Nobody was talking about entitlement. The point of this article is to show that all the people who “go and get a job” can barely afford a place to stay. A 2 bedroom apartment is average. The way prices are now, a one bedroom apartment is only slightly cheaper.

    Something this article is missing is commuting time. I spend 3 hrs on transport a day, and I’m sure other people have longer commutes that essentially eat up their free time (oh, sorry, did I say free? I meant food and errand time).

    But you’re absolutely right. Not everyone *has* to have a two bedroom apartment. Take Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union’s system was a blast! 2-3 families (parents, children, and grandparents in one family unit) living in one apartment building is a great example of an alternative.

  • Ruby

    I’m just wondering where in the article it said that everyone in universe is entitled to a nice two bedroom apartment. I didn’t see that at all. I don’t know where anybody could get that from.

  • Jack Bond

    So you’re saying that nobody should have to deal with conditions like in Soviet Russia, therefore we should find a way to give everyone in the country comfortable housing regardless of if anyone can afford it.

  • Anonymous

    Is this assuming that you are a single individual looking to pay for a two-bedroom apartment? I live in California and I was able to afford rent on minimum wage 40 hours/week no problem with another roommate. As an individual I suppose it might be stretching it but don’t most people room with somebody?

  • PoorSpeaksOut

    The wealthy structured this system to deprive the working class and poor by having min. wage too low to get an apt. and have corporations check your credit scores before they decide to hire, bringing back the depression of work before unions fought the tyrants. The wealthy wants to control your life (see Foxconn as an example)

    99% need to uprise against the 1%, like the French Revolution of 1793.

  • http://www.facebook.com/paul.pardee Paul Pardee

    Minimum wage isn’t meant for supporting families. MJ says if you can’t feed the baby, then don’t have the baby.  Minimum wage is meant for high school/college kids living with their parents.  

    I made minimum wage when I first moved out and I had a studio apartment and worked less than 40 hours per week on average (making $4.25/hour).  You can live on it, but you won’t be  living large.  Isn’t it ironic how prices of apartments went up as minimum wage went up?  Oh, actually, that’s not irony, that’s how a free market works.  Minimum wage increases the minimum cost of all goods and services which does not increase the standard of living for the poor but reduces the standard of living for the middle class (and rich to a lesser extent).  
    In short, if you want a nice place, do something that generates more value for society and you’ll get paid more in return.  Kinda the way the world works

  • Jack Bond

    Lol Are you freaking kidding me? Listen to this hypothetical situation.

    Imagine a business hires 10 people at $1.00 an hour, and the business makes $20.00 an hour in profit. The business has to spend $10.00 to pay its employees, and it gets $10.00 extra. The business wants to assure that its employees perform as best as possible, so they offer a raise to the 5 hardest working employees. So after a while, they raise 5 people to $3.00 an hour. The business gets good hard workers, and everybody gets paid.

    But those people only getting $1.00 an hour complain that they can’t afford an apartment.

    Now imagine they’ve gotten the government to raise minimum wage so they can get that apartment money. Now our business is restricted to paying no less than $3.00 an hour to any employee. Well if they hired 10 people, they’d have to pay $30.00 out of the $20.00 they actually make, so now they can only afford to hire 6 people. They don’t have much extra money to offer, so they can’t offer any raises. With no chance for raises, the employees’ performance becomes stale, and those people who were getting $1.00 an hour before don’t even get hired.

    And those people end up on the streets without even a penny to their name.

    Would you rather not make enough money to afford an apartment, or would your rather not have a job?

    Clearly, the way to afford an apartment isn’t to raise minimum wage, but instead to actually work harder, because that’s what employers look for and are willing to pay for. It’s common sense.

  • Jack Bond

    Finally, someone who understands how the world works. I feel like my brain is going to explode if I have to read another comment about why people are so oppressed when they don’t get the gold bars they’re entitled to.

  • fail

     I could counter that logic with a great example, the CEO’s of large corporations, what do they contribute of value to the community? No the real solution is to get an education so you can get a job that pays more not necessarily value.

  • fail

    Wow so much butthurt over a chart with the average time you would have to work to afford a 2 bedroom apartment. Goddamn it’s just an infographic. 

  • Howellusn

    Isnt this why there is low income housing developments? Most of those 2 bedrooms are around 500-600 and I am pretty sure minimum wage can afford that. 

  • artistream

    The reason no one can afford an apartment on minimum wage is because youre not supposed to be able to support yourself on minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs are entry level positions where people gain work experience, skills and an education. Thats the incentive of either going to college or entering into a trade guild/union. If someone neglects to improve their value as an employee or tradesman, then guess what, you missed the boat on that one so dont go crying when you have to split a 400 sq ft jr. loft with someone. 

  • http://twitter.com/pounddollarsign Michael Corey

    Misleading analysis is misleading. Sure, you can’t afford a full month’s rent on one week’s wages, but last I checked there is more than one week in a month.

  • http://anomdebus.myopenid.com/ anomdebus

    Good point. I am not sure how they are getting their numbers..
    I downloaded Ohio (for example), and found that the average 2br is $641. (Naively) Divide that by $7.70 (Ohio’s min wage) and you get ~83 hours, which is more than 70. But of course that is for the entire month. Taking into account payroll taxes, it bumps up the number of hours, obviously, but makes me wonder where 70 could have come from.

    Another economic point to make is wages are set to what the market will bear. In a place where the cost of living is higher, employers are not likely to find takers at minimum wage. They will have to pay higher to get any takers. Does anyone think McDonald’s in New York City pays minimum wage to their workers?

  • http://twitter.com/rayban5016 Ray O.

    Minimum wage is a scam thought up by the unions. It screws everyone else except the unions. Let the free market work. 

  • http://twitter.com/rayban5016 Ray O.

     I think what he is saying is; you were born an idiot and became educated, he was born educated and became an idiot.

  • http://twitter.com/rayban5016 Ray O.

     Yep, and I think that the bottom 50% should pay at least 1% into the system. Then they would at least have some skin in the game.

  • guest

    It must be because I’m not american, but I miss the point for one person to have two bedrooms.

  • guest

    I guess I’m confused. Looking at the sites they used to compile this chart, rent can be made on a two bedroom apartment if working 40 hours/week at minimum wage. It eats up about 60% of the budget, but it could be done. So I guess I want to know what they mean by affordable? Do they mean that groceries and utilities can be paid along with the rent or that just the rent can be paid?

  • Jack Bond

    Unions are a scam in and of themselves. Have you ever heard of collusion? Unions are just employee collusion. That should be just as illegal is it is for companies.

  • Sietsemail

    Checked this map against a list of minimum wage by state. The states with the highest minimum wages also require the longest work week to rent a 2 bedroom apartment. 

  • Jack Bond

    It’s a lot like Paul Pardee said. Raising minimum wage just makes things more expensive, and like I said, it just means those poor individuals who can’t afford an apartment find it harder to get a job at all.

  • Hjojo2584

    Minimum wage jobs are either entry level for those with no or little skills or education or are for students.  Most of these position are temporary steps in a positive direction, no one should expect to live off of minimum wage in the long term.

  • Alochin

    Where was it written that everyone is entitled to a two bedroom apartment? The one-way thinking of those guys is amazing!

  • Anonymous

    What you see before you is the tearing down of the family. Both parents have to work and the kid has to go enjoy indoctrination for hours. The sad part is that numbers like these only make people scream for more government action when they should be doing the opposite.

  • soccermom

    And what is so bad about a one bedroom apartment?  After all, this is based on the wages of one person.

  • http://www.facebook.com/shawnpiper Shawn Piper

    Your fuzzy math argument overlooks a few important factors:

    Real estate is finite.  As the world becomes increasingly crowded, housing becomes limited. Limited housing drives up demand.  When there is increased demand and limited supply / competition, the suppliers typically raise the prices. That’s why housing is more expensive in cities versus rural areas. 

    Likewise, the costs affiliated with engaging our society continue to go up.  50 years ago you didn’t need a phone or internet.  You didn’t need a computer. Today these things are required if you want to grow your career or take continuing education classes. With funding being cut to education and public libraries, where are these people supposed to get access to these technologies?

    And what of food and material costs? Almost everything is tied to the cost of oil. Again, as population grows so does the demand for non-renewable resources like oil. As the price of oil increases, so does the price of food, medicine, clothing, etc. 

    Medical care is also getting more expensive.  All the administrative overhead, new medicines and healing technologies all cost a small fortune for the uninsured. And I seriously doubt many making minimum wage get insurance from their employer.

    Finally, we have currency inflation and wage stagnation.  Real average hourly earnings (excluding fringe benefits) now
    stand roughly at 1974 levels. Yes, that’s right, no real increase in
    over 35 years. Since 1978, productivity in the non-farm business sector is up 86%, but
    real compensation per hour (which includes fringe benefits) is up just
    37%. Does that seem fair when management is bringing in record profits?

    So.. yes, maybe raising minimum wage does increase the cost of services in the long-term, but it does a good job of addressing some of these other issues in the short term.  And like it or not, there are many crucial jobs in our society that are minimum wage jobs.  We can’t all be managers, college graduates, researchers, IT workers.  We need people at the bottom to clean bathrooms, prepare food, change your oil. Don’t these people deserve to have the basics (healthcare, access to affordable healthy food, the ability to advance themselves if they choose) just like you or me? 

    Seeing people stuck in a cycle of working poor is not morally acceptable to me. 

  • Jack Bond

    You say we should give them the ability to advance themselves… Why not give them the ability to advance themselves within that minimum wage job? They start out low and quickly prove that they’re good hard workers and move to get raises. It’s no good if raising minimum wage dashes quality of service.

  • Commoncents

    This is article is not correct.  It should state on average people can not afford 2 bedroom apartments on minimum wage.  I clicked on Ohio, Scioto County, and looked up a 2 bed room apartment using the same website described in the article.  That total comes out to 584.  Minimum wage is 7.70 in Ohio and at 120 hours a month, the grand total is 1232 before tax.  If taxes take up 20% of said person’s paycheck, that leaves the person with 985.60 per month.  Which could cover an 2 bedroom apartment.  

  • Robobenito

    If a two bedroom apartment is so damn fancy that it’s an “entitlement”, then I suppose we should all just go cram into one-room tin shanty houses. But don’t worry, Kim Kardashian is just fine.

  • Jack Bond

    If we have to cram into a one-bedroom apartment, then that’s that. The point is saying “one person can’t afford a large living area in this country” doesn’t really break my heart. 

  • Anonymous

    That’s not what she said at all. The point which she so obviously pointed out, yet you decided to ignore, is that the philosophy of how everyone “should just go get a job” is really a flawed philosophy. It’s better personal economic sense to be on unemployment and welfare than to spend 40 hours a week at McDonalds flipping burgers (i.e. “a job”), because then you can actually afford to live.

    But America does pride themselves on being the Land of Opportunity and being able to work your way up from nothing. But it is nearly impossible to do that, since if you work really hard and put in even 50-60 hours a week with time-and-a-half overtime, you still can’t afford a place to live (much less food, water bill, electricity) in most places. 

    Do you think people living in the wealthiest nation in the world should have to put up with Soviet Russia conditions and take in 6+ people into a two-bedroom apartment? I feel like that is just bad policy.

  • Anonymous

    Not everyone is totally free of dependents. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed it, but there are some people who have children, or parents who cannot live on their own, etc.

  • Anonymous

    You’re ignoring the fact that not every business just freely gives out raises for working hard. Sometimes the hardest workers are the worst ass-kissers (which, in my experience in the private sector, more determines your ability to get on the boss’s good side), and will never have their performance noticed.

    Plus, there’s no rule that states “If an employee gives it their 100% best effort 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week (or more), their place of business must recognize them for it.” Some businesses will just tell you at your performance review that you’re a phenomenal employee, but a raise just isn’t in the cards. And you can go try to find another job, but then you start out at the bottom of the totem pole AGAIN, and you just have to pray every day that your performance gets noticed and your boss can reasonably fit a raise into your wage.

  • Anonymous

    How are unions not part of the free market? They’re not a government organization. They’re laborers. Unions just create competition within the workplace. 

  • Jack Bond

    If a business is too distracted to notice hard work but instead notices ass-kissing, then that business just has a bad manager. That doesn’t make me wrong.

    You’re saying that because businesses can’t afford to give out raises, we should force them to give everyone raises via upping minimum wage… Do you know how stupid that sounds? Furthermore, they WOULD give more raises if they could afford it if we lowered minimum wage. And in a low-minimum-wage economy, NOT giving a raise, or at least considering it would make you a bad employer, and your employees would probably go off to work for someone who would give them a raise.

  • Jack Bond

    Unions kill competition in the workplace. They bully businesses and make immoral inside deals with politicians. You know what collusion is? Unions are collusion except with employees. That should be illegal.

  • Undecider

    On minimum wage, in Southern California, you should be happy to afford even a one room studio or one room in a house.

  • Universalremote

    I don’t recall anything in the article stating or insinuating that everyone in the universe was entitled to a two bedroom apartment. I also do not recall anything being stated about anyone’s personal political views in regards to taxes. Honestly, I think the entire human race has just become silly. I say this because of the petty nature in which information is received and sometimes (not in this case particularly) given. How about we try something new and innovating, like I don’t know, being understanding, caring and a little less self centered? Now there’s and idea!! In regards to the article and your comment regarding entitlement to the populace of the world, no, I don’t recall there being a written rule or law or even note on the birth certificate stating you are as a human being entitled to at least two bedrooms, however, in the United States alone the majority of people who are on welfare and in need of assistance are low income families of a least four. These are people who are working minimum wage jobs and still cant manage to buy food for their families, or as indicated above afford a two bedroom apartment to put a roof over their head. Rather than dealing with the reason these people are on the assistance that so many feel they shouldn’t have because they are sucking off other peoples tax money or the government we sit here, in the most childish of fashions, as though we know these people personally, as though we understand their grievance and see none and therefore are now justified in criticizing them, putting them down and demoralizing the very thing that is keeping them surviving. Not everyone on government assistance is taking advantage of anything, or using anything or popping out kids to get more money, they are just trying to survive they just have to do it differently than those who actually landed the nice cushy job instead of them. These are called stereo-types and honestly, they make the individuals who use them as a basis of understanding the genus Homo of the Homininae subfamily of Hominidae (modern humans) look quite unintelligent or as I said before, just plain silly. Get a grip people!

  • Guest

    The article acknowledges that: “Now, it’s worth noting that not everyone making minimum wage would be trying to afford a two bedroom apartment by their lonesome, and generally speaking, people attempting to rent a two bedroom apartment would probably have a roommate who also has some kind of income.”

  • Marynicole831

    no…but if you have a child, you don’t have much of a choice.  In my area, most landlords won’t let me rent a 1 bedroom apartment with my daughter.

  • Chipmunk699

    I don’t think that anybody is entitled to anything but our countries average wage should afford people the basics in life.  Not a slum apartment that isn’t safe.  Just saying!

  • Jack Bond

    Perhaps the average wage, but not the minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs are usually entry level jobs and aren’t meant to pay living wages.

  • PeterLong

    As the article pointed out, there are single parents attempting to raise children who can only find minimum wage work. Our country suffers from vast unemployment & underemployment, and this hypothetical isn’t really pushing the realm of possibility much. This is a logical, accurate method to reflect on the income disparity we face here in the US… the US income gini index is larger than ever and groups us with some of the worlds worst when it comes to inequality.

  • bombs

    I got this great idea. How bout they stay in a… get this… ONE bedroom apartment?
    They act like people with full time jobs are dying on the streets. Find me ONE person that is homeless that has a full time job in the United States, you can’t find any.

  • Whyskeygyrl

    So working forty hours a week busting your ass doesn’t entitle you to afford a two bedroom apartment? Most one bedroom apartments are only about $70.00 less a month than a two bedroom. So I’m sure people earning minimum wage can’t afford one of those either.  How dare a working person feel they are entitled to live alone. Just because they make minimum wage does not mean they are second class citizens and deserve to live in a box since it doesn’t charge rent.

  • Anthony

    These must be some damn expensive apartments. I could afford mine, without my roommate, working about 35 hours a week. Of course i wouldn’t have much money for anything else, but I’d survive.

  • Youwishyouwere

    Im going to make this very simple for everyone. Life is not fair. Get over it. If you work harder and smarter you will have more. Period.I have worked hard my whole life. And I have always had more than what I needed. I also have been surrounded by broke people my whole life bitching and moaning about the cost of living the wage this and that. Suck it up. Either work hard and smart and have everything you want like i have. Or try to skate by …dont make your financial situation top priority and bitch and moan your whole life. your choice

  • Nick

    This is the most ridiculous comment. The person stated
    clearly this is a problem particularly in the case of a parent working minimum
    wage that has a child to look after. Second, a one bedroom is about $100
    dollars less than a two bedroom, minimum wage also does not qualify for the
    majority of 1 bedrooms. Not every human in the United States has parents, and
    it isn’t easy for everyone to find roommates. It is also literally illegal to
    be homeless; the system gridlocks poor people, and capitalism demands surplus
    labor. So people crushed by the system find themselves in prison where tax
    payers shell out over 50,000 a year per bed. Confederate conservatives will pay
    taxes if someone is getting hurt for it, I.E. war and prison, otherwise they
    enjoy torturing people and stealing their labor value because they are greedy
    and have a serious entitlement problem.

  • Oh Lawdy!

    Where does it say anything about anyone deserving anything you schmuck. However, for those of us who enjoy living in FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES, and not Randian third world nightmares like you morons want bring us back to full of soup kitchens and child labor sweatshops, it’d be nice if people of average means can actually AFFORD HOUSING.

  • Pointingthingsout

    It’s obvious you’ve made your financial situation a priority above your humanity.

  • Jeffro

    The key here is that businesses generally don’t just offer an hourly employee a raise. All of the raises I’ve ever gotten were of my demonstration of hard work and then asking. Why buy the milk when you can get the cow for free? Maybe you are the one in some sort of fantasy land? These people are vultures, but I can understand why, they pocket what they don’t have to “offer” an employee.

  • Jack Bond

    Well employees have to do a little of the work. That’s the nature of having a job.

  • Mike van Lammeren

    Rent prices go up when real estate prices go up, and real estate prices go up when cities and counties restrict development in the name of saving the environment.

  • turok

    The minimum wage in California is $8.00 an hour. Working 40 hour weeks, that’s $1,280 a month (before taxes). The cheapest one bedroom studio apartment in Lancaster CA (that I found) is $610 a month, with trash and water paid for. In order to even qualify to rent, you must prove your monthly income is 2.5 times the monthly rent (2.5 X $610 = $1525).So I guess for those of us who don’t have parents that can help (including recently separated veterans like me) getting an 800 square foot studio is an entitled luxury.

  • Bezy123

    funny thing is i have a 2 bedroom apartment in ohio and i work minimum wage full time about 45 hours a week and get paid bi weekly and afford a apartment and gas and electric and food and etc things so idk what this person is talking about!

  • honestlsy

    And what about food, utilities, transportation, child care, health care, educational expenses, and maybe – god forbid – an evening of entertainment once a month? The ignorance and greed disgusts me…

  • honestly

    Ridiculous…

  • Callahan

    I agree with you completely. If you can’t afford something, the guess what, you can’t have it. It’s that simple, and that’s the way it should be. I work a minimum wage job and live with two complete strangers. I don’t like my job, but it’s what I have to do to survive on my own. Why should taxpayers be punished for the mistakes made by individuals who have children before they’re ready? Can you imagine the sense of entitlement you must get from being given an apartment at what is essentially up to an 80% discount? It’s just a shame that there are people who don’t understand the value of a dollar, people who will take that apartment and not maintain it, then leave the landlord stuck with the damages. There is plenty of evidence of this on Youtube, and personally it’s happened to my family. It just makes me sick to think that people who don’t deserve something can get it. If you can’t afford a house, you can’t get one. If you can’t afford 4 years of college education, do 2 years at a community college, then 2 years at a state school and WORK HARD! Don’t complain about how it’s too expensive and you’re entitled to the education on someone else’s dime.

  • Gabrielle

    It’s Called Code enforcement you Jerks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! unless you are talking about single people- and no majority out here have families and no need to talk about what shoulda coulda and who shouldn’t have had what, point is, at this moment its here (families with offspring). If you work you should be able to provide the amount of space for the family and not lie about it just to get a place due to reason of CODE ENFORCEMENT!!! and you will loose you entire family if they found out! YOu make no sense people, no wonder why this countries vanity slave place is F$@!ed

  • BJR

    This map cannot be correct unless it’s broken down further than just state borders. I’ve lived in towns in central California where minimum wage is $8 an hour but I can afford a 2 bedroom HOUSE, and I’ve also lived in San Francisco where 3 roommates in a 2 bedroom apartment can barely scrape by in a city that’s raised its own wages to $2.50 above the state minimum to offset the housing costs.

    So how is this accurate if different cities have vastly different economies and costs? I don’t understand what this is trying to prove.

  • Nuhnuv Yerbiznich

    Of course it can’t; that’s why its called MINIMUM WAGE. This isn’t what adults working full time jobs are meant to be making. Rather it is the minimum amount any employer should pay, even to high school dropouts still living with their parents. A 2 bedroom apartment is middle class/low mid-class living conditions; this means more than minimum wage.

    Furthermore, we are talking about one person working minimum wage for a 2 bedroom place. Why does one person need 2 bedrooms? If there are 2 people then they can have 2 jobs, and then it would be affordable.

  • Panda

    News flash: To those of you saying “Get over it, get a one bedroom” are setting up single parents for something completely illegal. In my state, a parent is NOT allowed to share their bedroom with their children. Children of the same gender can share a bedroom, but not opposite. And who would want to put a girl and a boy in the same bedroom anyway? So myself, being a single mother, requires a three bedroom because I have one son and one daughter. How can I afford that with my (you guessed it) minimum wage job? Best I can do is find a two-bedroom in the ghetto, pray I don’t get robbed or shot at, pray my kids don’t grow up to be trash because of the only environment I can afford, and sleep on my couch. After busting my ass raising two kids alone and working all week to put a roof over their heads, don’t I deserve to sleep in a fucking bed?! I think so! I am a human being ffs.

  • Panda

    Another thing, while we are all discussing minimum wage and the opportunity for advancement: I devoted seven years of my life to the same cleaning company as one of their best-known janitors. My cleaning jobs were phenomenal, my clients always rewarded me with little gifts and even a baby shower when I was pregnant. This however, did not merit me a single raise in that seven years of time. Jobs like this are based on the client and the contract they signed with said minimum wage employer. When I started this job, 7.40 an hour was good money. Minimum wage went up twice since then, but did the contract rate? Nope. Now those employees that used to make good money are stuck moving backwards into minimum wage, as their livelyhood decreases because of the cost of living increasing. These types of jobs are good for older people with grown children, or people with no children at all. Typically with social security checks that allow them to work, as the income itself will not supplement you properly. I had to walk away from this now that I have kids. I STILL can’t find anything better though!

  • Jimmy

    One.. That’s easy. How about thousands. Ever hear the term “migrant farm worker”?

  • Jimmy

    You do know that you have to pass entrance exams to college right? You do know that there are kids being pushed through high school and leave unable to read/write? You do know that this isn’t the fault of the child but the system. You do know that a GED will not get you into college? You do know that there are tens of thousands of veterans who due to their mental and physical disabilities are unable to perform many tasks that we take for granted and can therefore only get minimum wage jobs. You do know that there are countless mothers out there who have been abandoned and are trying to get off government assistance but simply can’t find work that allows them to also raise their kids. You do know that not everyone has a family to fall back on? You do know… Oh wait, clearly you don’t know sh*t.

    You say you have worked hard your whole life and you probably believe that you are “self-made”. You are not. Your parents saw to it that you lived somewhere that you could get a decent education. And that is because they got their jobs from someone they knew. Did you work full-time and put yourself through college? Did you get your job “on your own” or like most people someone you knew, knew a guy somewhere that was hiring. How did you meet the people that helped you land that job? Your parents get the credit for your life, not you.

    The most offesive statement though is about sucking it up. You don’t know sh*t about sucking it up? You’ve never had less than 5 meals in a week. You’ve never had to take ice cold showers because your parents couldn’t pay the gas bill. You have no idea what living in the ghetto is like. You have no idea the differences in public education systems in this country. I lived the majority of my life in the ghetto and then moved away as a teen. Found out I ( who always had passing grades ) was several years behind the other students.
    You think everyone who is working minimum wage is lazy? You are a little sh*t who doesn’t know anything about the human condition and are clearly unable to empathise with those that are less fortunate. Cearly the best part of you ran down your momma’s leg; daddy should have pulled out sooner.

  • http://www.facebook.com/william.alvarado.758 William Alvarado

    dont you think that the business would just RAISE the price of their product instead of giving more money than they make???

  • http://www.facebook.com/william.alvarado.758 William Alvarado

    dont you think that the business would just RAISE the price of their product instead of giving more money than they make???

  • Jack Bond

    They might. But that also ruins their competitiveness and they lose money to their competition, or if they manage to get past that, it nullifies the effect of the higher pay because those same employees now have to pay more for things, ESPECIALLY the budget items/labor. Raising minimum wage only hurts the poor.

  • ryan

    What your saying wouldn’t be that bad at all if it actually worked that way. Most countries do have a 1:15-1:30 pay ratio. So in your example, the ratio is 1:10. The top boss gets $10 profits to the $1 the employees get. Thats beyond fair and reasonable and I would love to work in that situation. 1:20 is still super good in my book.

    The problem is in America the ratio is currently 1:176, and was greater than 1:250 under bush. The Big boss spends $10 on all his employees and the business earns $186 and he/she takes home $176. The boss than flys into a hissy fit when his workers demand a $0.50 raise when food prices double because it would force him to suffer with $171.

    Furthermore, that boss doesn’t actually do anything, or even know how to do it. His great grandfather had been a hard working intelligent man who built his company from the ground up. So the boss hires a bunch of college grads to ddo the real work for $3 each. So they make 3x what the others make, but still a fraction of what he makes for playing golf and leaching off the system more than any minimum wage worker on welfare ever could.

  • Anonymous

    Does this chart take into account the different rates in each state/areas of the state for 2-bedroom apt. and the minimum wage for said area…?

    Doesn’t look like it takes the rate into account.