Today at lunch a couple of my co-workers were talking about raising minimum wage. I don't normally involve myself in political discussions, but I had to pipe up and mention that, yes, people actually CAN – and do – live on a minimum-wage salary (a person; not a family).
Of course, everyone's definition of "being able to live like that" differs. For example, if you earn minimum wage, live with your family (who doesn't really expect you to chip in much for bills/rent/utilities), and buy only what you need to survive, you can do it. Lots of people do. I think.
At this point in the conversation I had to clarify: what do I know about it, having been raised in the lap of middle class luxury?
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2 comments:
It's kind of puzzling to me (1) why anyone ever thought that working at a fast-food place or cleaning bathrooms or whatever would or should be enough to support a family in other than very tight circumstances (such as in a small trailer in a trailer court, maybe? With food stamps & other subsidies to help out?) ... or (2) why people don't realize that raising the minimum wage will force businesses that employ a lot of busy-work workers (like discount stores) will feel they have to raise prices to compensation . . . so inflation will do its thing and therefore the people with the raised wages will still feel very pinched. I bet the reason you were raised in the lap of middle-class luxury, as you call it, is that your parents emphasized the importance of going to college and getting qualified to get out and stay out of minimum wage jobs. Is that perhaps correct? I grew up hearing mention among my parents and brothers about "having to work as a garbage man" if one did not going to college. Not sure where that came from, but I also grew up in middle-class security; it is also true that BOTH my parents, who did not meet til some years later, were valedictorians of their small high school classes, yet both worked many hours at late-night jobs to help put themselves through college, meanwhile making As in their classes, and being prepared for middle-class jobs once they graduated. Anyway, I agree with what you have written in your blog, that a full-time minimum-wage worker may be able to "make it" as a single person by sharing housing with family . . but beyond that (expecting to support kids or expecting to be able to pay for one's own apartment or house) may not be what minimum-wage jobs are able to facilitate. So . . . off to college. Low income people often have many more funding opportunities through grants and loans than middle-class people do. At least it has seemed that way to me whenever anyone in my family tried to apply for any kind of financial aid. Fortunately, my daughter DID get a fair number of grants from her college as well as other sources, which made her private college career possible; yet she still emerged with plenty of student loan debt, sigh.
Hey, Margaret --
That post was partly "hey, here's my opinion" and partly a joke. I wasn't raised in the lap of luxury; while my parents did well for themselves they were -- and are! -- savers and every corner was cut where it could be. I wore my sister's hand-me-down clothes until I grew taller than she; I think at that point she might've worn some of MY hand-me-downs!
We were told from a young age that we had to go to some type of "school" after high school. Whether that was college (which my sister and I both did) OR a vocational school to learn a trade, we HAD to do something after we graduated to ensure we could provide for ourselves.
Of course, only my sister ended up using her 4-year degree; while I earned my undergrad degree I don't use it anymore -- basically all "going to college" does for someone is tell potential employers, "this person is teachable." IMO.
I appreciate your comment! It's definitely food for thought -- especially this: "people don't realize that raising the minimum wage will force businesses that employ a lot of busy-work workers (like discount stores) will feel they have to raise prices to compensation . . . so inflation will do its thing and therefore the people with the raised wages will still feel very pinched."
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