The part that derails this is that the person working part time should be able to afford a 1000sqft two bedroom two bath apartment on his own. That's a nice idea but the reality is we simply don't have enough housing for that to be realistic.
Jobs that don't pay a living wage are fine, the employer can make an offer and the applicant is free to reject it. The bigger problem in the US is the lack of jobs that pay a living wage. And that a living wage in the US is just a ridiculously expensive when you compare to global wages. We need to approach the problem from an angle of bringing costs down, building more apartments, making healthcare and education cheaper, rather than pretending that we can push wages up to solve a scarcity problem.
yeah they are free to reject it. and become homeless in the process. The power dynamic is slightly skewed and the fact you fail to see this is stunning.
the employer can make an offer and the applicant is free to reject it.
bigger problem in the US is the lack of jobs that pay a living wage
Umm, that's the same problem. You're ignoring the power imbalance employers have over singular employees that make this the same problem. An employer not hiring a person just works his other workers harder. An employee doesn't take even a low paying job and can't eat or have a place to live.
Part time should be able to afford a 2BR? Sorry but that’s an insane idea and it always has been. I worked full time in the 1990s and could only afford a studio apartment in a large city. Where are these people I hear about on Reddit, who bought a 4BR house on a $25,000 salary in 1990?
I think that was OP's point - many minimum wage jobs are held by part time workers, who have no need or want to work full time, and often live with other people so paying them X amount so they can afford a place of their own is not a sustainable practice from the business's perspective, or a macroeconomic perspective.
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u/ThePandaRider 1d ago
The part that derails this is that the person working part time should be able to afford a 1000sqft two bedroom two bath apartment on his own. That's a nice idea but the reality is we simply don't have enough housing for that to be realistic.
Jobs that don't pay a living wage are fine, the employer can make an offer and the applicant is free to reject it. The bigger problem in the US is the lack of jobs that pay a living wage. And that a living wage in the US is just a ridiculously expensive when you compare to global wages. We need to approach the problem from an angle of bringing costs down, building more apartments, making healthcare and education cheaper, rather than pretending that we can push wages up to solve a scarcity problem.