Mary Poppins and the minimum wage
Via Diane Ravictch and Dailykos comes this video from last year.
Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.
Via Diane Ravictch and Dailykos comes this video from last year.
To just get by in Ann Arbor, Michigan; you can plan on ~$30,000 for an individual and $68,000 for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children. http://www.epi.org/resources/budget/ EPI Calculator. We are not exactly a hot spot for high costs. Go to New York City, add another $30,000. It kind of kills the idea of getting by on the minimum wage.
If minimum wage workers live in the 40th percentile of housing by cost who is living in the bottom 20%?
Actually, if two worked two $30,000 a year jobs that would lift them out of poverty — no fancy vacations or new cars mind you.
It would also lift the temptation to join drug gangs as the only way to make an adult living. The labor market wont “clear” on the south and west sides of Chicago because the pay checks are impossibly (insultingly) low. Half the gang-age, male population is not looking for (legitimate) work — making their real unemployment rate more like 60%.
Ditto for American born cab drivers here when the meter is now 50 cents a mile lower than 1981 when I started here + subways built to both airports + unlimited limos + 40% more cabs — in a town where half the days were always slow already). In San Fran where I hacked up until 2004 they now have twice as many cabs as then — will the yuppie explosion absorb that; does anybody in power care?
Make the minimum wage $15 an hour and Chicago will have to go up at least a dollar a mile or no one will drive a cab.
Did she miss the fact that she is getting free room and board?
To be perfectly relevant we would have to gauge how many US minimum wage jobs come with “free” room and board. “Free” coming in at about the $1400 a month she is losing compared to a $15 min wage.
She’s working 6 or 7 days a week and fending off her boss’ advances (you know she has to be). Sometimes “free” isn’t very free.
She gets time-and-a-half over 40 hours.