The Cost Of Living For A Single Adult With No Children

The world is filled with luxuries such as personal islands, gold-plated cars, or crystal pianos. What about everyday items like food, clothing, and shelter? Families in the United States can barely afford such items because of an American tragedy: the minimum wage. Though the sights and sounds of fluttering money is alluring, it is also elusive. The minimum wage is a tragic loss for the United States because it cannot even provide the bare minimum for employees working tirelessly for it. Opposition of raising it can be negated by statistics that show how the country can move into a brighter future. Data from economic research shows

Raising the federal minimum wage allows individuals to be able to provide for themselves and their families without the need for some type of government assistance. One report explains that families with workers only earning minimum wage rely on those workers for 59% of the families’ total earnings (Fox). Many people associate minimum wage jobs as starter jobs for high school students, but the reality is that the number of college graduates working in minimum wage jobs has more than doubled over the past five years. The majority of people who are earning minimum wage are

Contrary to stereotype, the typical minimum-wage worker is not a middle-class teenager earning pocket money. According to the CBO, based on Census Bureau data, 88% of minimum wage earners are adults 20 or older; 55% are women. For these adults and their families, proper housing is unaffordable, as a February 2015 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (based on federal data) shows: A minimum-wage earner would need to work, on average, 2.6 full-time jobs to rent a decent two-bedroom apartment for less than 30% of her or his income.

In present times in The United States the average person working a decent full time job is only earning $15,080 with the minimum wage of $7.25. That money is in your pocket if you work those 40 hours each week for a year which sounds like a decent amount of money, but now imagine all the expenses you do throughout the year as well. The money earned is not sufficient enough to care for families. If the minimum wage it is raised families will be able to live in decent homes, survive everyday obstacles.. The minimum wage needs to be raised to an amount where families are able to only work one job and not two or three.

What if a 16 year old was making $18,000 a year after taxes, working only 25 hours a week? Most likely you would expect that teenager to have a pretty prestigious job at such a young age. However that is not the case, if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour, a 16 year old could make $18,000 yearly working only 25 hours a week at McDonalds. Now for teenagers that have goals for college or a car, that would money to set aside for the future, however most 16 year olds do not have those goals in mind yet, so that extra money turns into wasted money. As of February 2016 the minimum wage ranges anywhere from $7.25-$10 across the United States. Florida’s rate is at $8.05 an hour, however some believe the minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour in all states(Raise).” People working in minimum wage jobs may feel as if this $7 bump would be a great advantage to them, but there are possible negative results of doing this too. As a manager of a restaurant where employees start at minimum wage, I can only imagine the effects our company would feel. Raising the minimum wage is not the solution to helping people out of poverty , I feel it will only be enabling them to stay in the same position they are in and give less motivation for teens to further their generation. Increasing the minimum wage will harm businesses and will decrease the motivation to get a further education.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 14% of the nation lives below the poverty line, the current population is 326,474,013, and 45,706,362 of the population lives in poverty every single day. One of the reasons why such a large chunk of the population is in poverty is because they are not being paid a reasonable salary for them to support themselves and their families. Raising the minimum wage can lead to problems, but gradual increases are made over time, it could be beneficial for millions of people around the nation. The positive effects of raising minimum wage is what makes it worth it. A raise in minimum wage can be beneficial; however, it must be a

Since 2009, the federal minimum wage rate for employees has been $7.25 per hour. In retrospect, this is hardly enough pay to take care of one’s self-- let alone a family with children. If a person were to add up the average cost of living for one week and then compare it to the average amount of money earned in minimum wage for that week, it would be apparent that there is little to no extra money for emergency situations. Increasing the minimum wage has been a major controversial issue; Democrats are proponents of raising the minimum wage, however, Republicans are trying to stop the movement. Many economists have discussed how raising the minimum wage could benefit millions of people and businesses, yet Republicans still hinder the

Many people currently earning minimum wage are clamoring for an increase while others do not want an increase to keep wages competitive. A minimum wage increase would help out the ones that are currently earning a minimum wage “If the federal minimum wage were increased, the disparity in the minimum wage and tipped workers' hourly wage could grow larger.” (Leah Cayson). A minimum wage increase would let workers have more hours which in turn means more productivity for the business, more money for the employee, and the employees would be happier. The amount of people living in poverty is high enough with many of them living on welfare checks but if the minimum wage does increase that could go away completely reducing taxes for everyone. Many people also believe that the minimum wage should stay where it currently is “Going to $15 adds $128,000 to labor costs, almost 3 times the take-home pay of the owner. Ask yourself how one of the 5 million small businesses with fewer than 10 workers would handle this” (William Dunkelberg). Small business owners are already having to pay a lot of money for labor, supplies, and advertising. Increasing the minimum wage up to $15 will decrease wages for

Some people say that when we raise our minimum wage our economy inflates, and the price change would be pointless. Yet when our economy constantly shifts from depression to economic boom, the average worker needs a money cushion. Living on paycheck to paycheck is not a healthy lifestyle, and is in complete contrast to the American Dream. As a high school student working on minimum wage, most people think that $7.25 is plenty for a teenager, when in actuality it is not. Although opponents can argue that “most minimum wage workers are not trying to support themselves, but are living in households where their living expenses are largely provided for,” says Beth Shulman, this is not the case. “Half of fast-food workers during the 2010-12 were 23 or over,” according to John Schmitt from the Center of Economic Policy Research. Most of these workers probably clock-in two minimum jobs, and are struggling to make it paycheck to paycheck, never getting the chance to pay off their debts, to take personal vacations, or to live the American Dream.

Most people do not know what it is like to live from paycheck to paycheck and to always be in constant fear of wondering if they will be able to put food on the table for themselves and their family. Sadly, this is a harsh reality for people across the United States and also in many foreign nations as well. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 roughly 75 million workers in the United States were paid at hourly rates and of those 75 million workers. Of the hourly employees 1.6 million of them were paid minimum wage and another 2 million were paid less than $7.25 an hour, which is the current minimum wage. A minimum wage worker earns about $15,000 a year, which is only half of the $30,000 needed to maintain real economic

Raising the minimum wage could help to protect workers from exploitation. It is a sad reality that employers take advantage of their workers and it is very commonplace to do so. Undercutting regulations, and human rights themselves, many use undocumented labor and otherwise shady business practice to get ahead. Not much is done to remedy this problem. A worker cannot easily escape this situation either. There are not many jobs, so each chance is

With the inadequate minimum wage, many American families are struggling to get by. Today’s constantly increasing costs of housing, child-care, and health-care

If the minimum wage were to increase, many companies and business would need to lay off employees to compensate for the higher wages. According to the Office of Economic Analyses, $15 an hour would cause a disincentive to hire more employees. People would be laid off so that the company can stay afloat. Although it would allow access to more spending for the lower income workers, it would also lower the unemployment rate (OEA, 2014). The workers that lose their jobs, are the people that have the lower skill levels. They are the ones that need the jobs the most, the ones with no education and no way to sustain themselves. Raising the wage would help financially for many families, but it may cause more harm than good when it comes to the less educated part of the labor force.

We have heard the argument that families just need to learn to live within their means, but with ever increasing expenses like housing, healthcare, goods and services, combined with ever decreasing wages, our economy is a recipe for disaster. While some argue that the’ minimum wage’ should be raised to a ‘living wage’, others argue that any increase in the minimum wage would spell disaster for employers and destroy any economic growth.

In the United States, over 50% of all workers from age 16 and up are earning the minimum wage. The minimum wage is the lowest amount a worker can get paid per hour, which is currently $7.25. However, many states have already raised the minimum wage above the required amount. Even though some states have taken the initiative to raise their minimum wage, many people are still living in poverty. In most cases, they not only need to provide for themselves, but in most cases, a family. As said in Time magazine, “A full-time job shouldn’t mean a life in poverty. The federal minimum wage amounts to just $15,080 a year for full-time work. That translates into declining living standards, reduced economic mobility and a shrinking middle class”(Lu). These just show a couple reasons why support raising the minimum wage as opposed to keeping it at the current wage. Other reasons include the amount of people this would help, how much this would help people earning the minimum wage, and also how there are no known consequences or evidence of the negative outcomes.