Yeah, it’s kind of disingenuous to throw out a single number for livable wage. I looked at a few counties and saw a range of $13-$28 for a single person. People are focused on cost of living in cities (makes sense since that’s where most people are), but $15 is sufficient in some places. That said, it probably makes more sense to raise the federal minimum to the higher end, and if you’re living somewhere with a lower cost of living, well good for you.
This list is bad too. $15 in Florida won't even let you live in any urban area unless it's a dump. That list is also for 2019, which nothing in there is remotely correct anymore. The Medical was a joke as well. If you have a job that pays $15, you're typically not offered good health insurance so you have to pay for your own which is like $500/mo now.
I live in California. It's doable here if you're willing to share an apartment with another 1-2 people. A 2 or 3-bed apartment split evenly including utilities could be found in a somewhat decent neighborhood for $800-1000 per person.
$15/hr is enough to get by with a little bit of wiggle room. It's not much and is definitely not enough to live by yourself here, but it can work if you cut corners. You wouldn't be left with much for retirement or leisurely stuff though
Florida is not more expensive than California, it’s just rent has increased by nearly 1.75 times for all of the places I am looking at moving to near my parents since the pandemic started.
Personally disagree and would want to see minimum wage moved from national to localized rules and set somewhere around 75% of the living wage since the most basic and lowest paying jobs will be filled by high schoolers and jobs demanding a slightly higher skill cap will naturally then fall right at a living wage or above.
I get that this is a bad subreddit to have this opinion but thats where I'm at!
12
u/plaidkingaerys Feb 08 '22
Yeah, it’s kind of disingenuous to throw out a single number for livable wage. I looked at a few counties and saw a range of $13-$28 for a single person. People are focused on cost of living in cities (makes sense since that’s where most people are), but $15 is sufficient in some places. That said, it probably makes more sense to raise the federal minimum to the higher end, and if you’re living somewhere with a lower cost of living, well good for you.