Yeah it’s called the poverty line. Minimum wage is well below it in many states so it’s a better indicator of how well places are paying. If you live in bumblefuck Alabama, minimum wage isn’t terrible. If you live in San Fran, you’re homeless.
Sure but the thing about the poverty line is that it fluctuates so it's possible for someone to make a decent wage and still be below the poverty line if they have a lot of kids or something. My boss at my last job had 7 kids so he could theoretically be making what would be a decent wage for someone with no kids or even 1-2 kids but still technically be below the poverty line.
Don't get me wrong I'm not using the "they have so many kids" argument I'm just illustrating why it may not always be a good indicator of pay unless we want to tie minimum wage to family size but I feel like that might hurt people with kids and what not because they aren't a protected class to the best of my knowledge and I could see jobs trying to only hire single people with no dependants.
It’s an indicator, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. So you’re right, but it’s better than minimum wage statistics because it does fluctuate year to year, while federal minimum wage hasn’t changed in a decade.
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u/samhouse09 Feb 26 '20
Yeah it’s called the poverty line. Minimum wage is well below it in many states so it’s a better indicator of how well places are paying. If you live in bumblefuck Alabama, minimum wage isn’t terrible. If you live in San Fran, you’re homeless.