Is it possible to live on minimum wage?

[Breadophile]

Copypaste from my word document, formatted for your viewing.

Is it possible to live on minimum wage?

This I ponder and so shall I answer.

Let’s calculate the cost of living in the place where the cost of living is not completely insane (California, New York, etc.)

Rent
Rent comes with water, sewage, and trash collection. It is, after all, a place to live and not just a house. Find some roommates, and I mean a LOT of roommates.

But assuming with just one and in a U.S. state that isn’t completely ridiculous with its cost of living, it’ll run you $500 a month at most, and this is for a decent place.

Food
You need it to live. I aim to be reasonable here. Because this is to see if you can live on this amount, prices have been rounded up so as not to be inaccurate but still concise. If you take care to preserve your food, you can get by with the following.

It is $7.50 a week for a box of cereal (Frosted Flakes or Cheerios) and a gallon of milk for breakfast. Assuming one can do simple math, this is $30 every four weeks. With some more difficult math, this is $32.50 a month ($30 * 13/12). There are 13 4-week periods in a year, but only 12 months.

Every two weeks, buy the following:
- $3.00 (two bags of bread)
- $3.50 (american cheese: Kraft singles)
- $4.00 (black forest ham)
- $4.00 (head of lettuce; Do NOT get pre-shredded stuff instead. It’d be more accurate to call it pre-spoiled)
- $5.00 (two pounds of tomatoes)

Hope you like sandwiches, because here’s lunch for two weeks. Start packing. This totals to $19.50, which becomes $42.25 a month.
Don’t eat fast food for lunch unless you really, really want a Cheesy Gordita Crunch.

As for dinner, let’s budget $5 a night to do whatever we want. Macaroni and Cheese costs less than this and believe me when I say that a box of the Velveeta version will more than fill you up. According to a friend, a decent cut of meat is also under this price. Both of these require a method to cook them, however. If you’re rent doesn’t include a stove, then tough luck. An entire box of cheerios for dinner is also under $5, if you’re really, really hungry. In any case, this is $35 a week and thus $151.66 (repeating) a month.

For all cases other than breakfast, don't drink anything other than water. You’ll live longer. If you’re working a manual labor job for your minimum-wage salary you do this already.

All of this totals to $226.40 a month. I can’t forget tax, however, which is, depending on what state you live in, at most 7%. That means it actually totals to $242.25. Of course, you can get by with less, but personal health is important and this will take care of any issues with starvation. Perhaps not hunger, however. You’ll have to live like every day people in every other country in the world.

A mini-fridge is $70. Space is cramped but it’s enough to hold everything I’ve mentioned.

If you have extra at the end of the month, buy something to change it up. It'll do you good.

If you’re really strapped for cash, remember that cup ramen was invented to solve world hunger. It’s arguably the cheapest food and by design, it’s fatty enough to substitute for a meal. Continued consumption is not recommended, obviously.

Car
If you can walk to work, man oh man do you have a huge edge over most other workers.

Now then, this section takes care of all three costs relation to a car: gas, insurance, and the cost of the car itself. It does not cover maintenance. That’s extremely hard to budget. I’ll cover it later.

For the cost of the car, you can get a car that will run fine for $2k or so. Might be off of Craigslist, but if it works it works. See if you can get at least a 2-year lease or, more likely, someone to borrow that money from that’ll let you pay it back in segments. How does $83.33 a month sound?

For the cost of gas, I’m going to guess the average person has a gallon and a half to work and back every day. If you’re working a minimum-wage job I assume you can find one close enough to where you live. How does 3 gallons on weekends sound for any sort of other troubles you might have? Perhaps you work 7 days a week all month (ouch). In any case, this means you won’t driving all over the place. If this is too big of a problem, budget some more for gas. This totals out to $182 a month. That somewhat high, but I’ll go with it.

Lastly, the cost of insurance; I have no figures for this, but a friend of mine says that my estimation of $70 a month is reasonable. This obviously totals to $70 a month. If you don’t pay $70 a month, save the difference. Every car breaks down eventually. Make sure when it breaks down, you don’t.

Electricity
Like car insurance, I honestly have no idea. According to several websites, $100 is a reasonable amount you can expect to pay for your monthly electricity bill. This is by living area, so split with your roommate this is $50 a month. It is very possible, however, that the two of you will use more electricity than just one, but probably not enough to pass $100. I will use this number for the monthly cost.

If you really live conservatively, this will of course go down as you use less electricity resources. Save the difference; don’t throw it into you’re pool of what you can spend. You might need it one day.

Cell Phone
You can’t get by without one, especially if you neglect a house phone (which, really, you don’t need if you have a cell phone). A cell phone can cost anywhere from $40 to $160. This is a menial amount for a one-time fee when compared to the car, so you can figure out where to get that money on your own.

A friend of mine claims his company’s rates for phone plans start at $45 a month. Another friend of mine says that he pays $65 a month. I’ll use the higher of the two and assume the standard for minimum-wage workers is either that or less.

Internet
If you can see this, you have access to internet. The internet is such a powerful tool for learning of all kinds and essential for many aspects of living that you really should not live without regular access to it.

Get a desktop if you can budget for one, either by paying for one in full or doing something similar to what I mentioned for cars. If you need things to do in your free time that cost next to nothing (except your internet bill), the internet can provide.

On that note, I’ve heard a claim of $60 a month for the internet bill.
However, if you’re REALLY strapped, uh… ever been to the library? Guess what internet costs there. Whatever it costs to drive there $0

Total
The monthly cost for all of this totals to $1,303. This means you need $15,636 a year.

Minimum wage is $7.25, which with expected 40 hour work weeks and most certainly expected 52 weeks to a year, totals to $15,080. This doesn’t include what the government schmucks take out, though I think it might be nothing.

Observations
There are discrepancies on both sides.

First off, obviously the cost of most of the things I mentioned can be lowered. I overestimated all of the costs for a reason.

Rent is the most notorious offender. Minimum wage becomes far and away much easier to live with more people paying the rent.

Your internet can similarly be lowered by either going to the library or going to a friend’s place (quite possibly to find out where the library is, as that is very difficult without internet).

Your cell phone plan can also be reduced, but obviously cannot be done without.

You can cut on down on food, but I do not recommending taking from anything other than the dinner budget before other sources. Food stamps do exist, however. If you qualify you should most certainly apply for them.

For the other side:

This doesn’t account for people who don’t have 40 hours a week, though presumably anyone working minimum wage attempts to work two jobs to total to 40 hours.

This also doesn’t account for kids, but if you’re on minimum-wage you shouldn’t have those without some money saved up anyway. In any case, food stamps can help remedy the problem as the amount you get is increased with kids.

Far and away the biggest problem, just like with a business, is the start-up cost. You need to pay for a refrigerator and a couch and/or bed. While both of those aren’t much, you aren’t making much money either. You also need access to computer (yes, need; you’ll go crazy otherwise). Presumably you have a truck full of clothes. If you don’t, well that’s what goodwill is for.

Speaking of Goodwill, start shopping there; it’s cheap and there’s a lot of useful stuff there. The Habitat-for-Humanity ReStore also sells a ton of (different) useful stuff for cheap. Definitely look there when starting to live your own.

I didn’t mention it earlier because I didn’t think of it (and I don’t wanna go back and add it because I’d have to re-do my math), but a monthly cost should also be regulated to access to the local washer and drier to clean your clothes. Each, for one cycle, is around $1.25.

I, again, do not know what the government takes from a person’s wage if they make the minimum. This could potentially cut a huge dent into the amount one makes yearly.

If you have debt the debtors can take money directly from your salary. It is next to impossible to make ends on minimum wage in this way.

On minimum wage, there is also no money for contingency plans such as a car breaking down or an injury of some sort (even with affordable health care, whatever the fuck that means).

Conclusion
While, with all of cuts I mentioned and a workaround for the startup costs, you SHOULD be able to get by. However, everyone should be able to live the dream with at least as much as I have mentioned prior.
If you have a kid before getting financially stable, you already have a problem that this paper can in no way help. I will not address this issue, though it is mentioned again later and is covered enough by the last part of this section.

While debt is usually the fault of the person who has it, that is no excuse as to why someone should not even be given the opportunity to pay it off by at least making a decent living. In many cases with minimum wage, people must go into debt just to survive, meaning their debt is clearly not their fault.

The lifestyle for the cost I listed ($15,636) is what I consider to be the “acceptable” minimum, but does not include money for contingency plans. Even this however, is not met. As such it is to my conclusion that $7.25 an hour is enough to live, but not live acceptably. One should not be forced to eat badly, to have more than one roommate, or to forgo things such as electricity or gas. However, with all of the sources of error, it is impossible to say for certain as everyone’s circumstances are different.

APPENDIX A - Extra Advice
Do not make a lover your roommate. If you guys split it will be annoying to plan around that.
Financial stability is important. Save remaining money for contingency plans. Don't have kids until you're stable.
And for god sakes don't fucking buy anything you don't need if you don’t have the fucking money for it.

Sources
lol I’m too lazy to bother. Fuck all y’all.


Alright, that should be it. Please review and comment.

[Mizu]

I live in Ontario, Canada. The tax here is 13%. However, items that are considered actual food are not taxed up to a certain price. The biggest problem I find with that is that if you're really poor, chances are you aren't living off of real food. XD There's also no tax up to a certain price on things like children's clothing and baby formula and such.

Minimum wage here is $10.25. We also have OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) so simple visits to the doctor and various other small things are covered (getting warts removed form your feet is covered, getting them removed from your hands is not.), meaning we don't have to pay. Prescriptions are not covered, neither is any sort of dentist fee or any other sort of doctor/specialist that isn't simply your family physician.

I think the biggest problem is FINDING a job in the first place. Let's be honest here, if you only have the skill set to work minimum wage jobs, then life probably isn't going to be easy for you financially. Ever. lol That being said my cousin is in that boat and gets paid a lot. XD He makes ~$20 or so an hour with 9.5 hour day 5 days a week. He has very few expenses, so he's got a lot of money to burn right now. XD However, he does have a job at a sewage plant. x.x; He gets sick a lot and it's not a very safe work environment. He's almost died a few times. v.v;;

I don't think minimum wage should be raised. Even if it were raised as soon as people could afford to buy more, prices would increase accordingly. People who work minimum wage make enough. That's good enough. If you need more money, apply for welfare.

Welfare is INSANE in Canada. Or at least in Ontario. I know people who've been living off it for almost all of their lives. I'm not sure exactly how much you get when you have children, but I'm pretty sure it's a significant amount more. If you don't have children they will give you as an individual up to I think $300 for rent. Which, given the right number of roommates, is possible. THEN they give you almost $300 on top of that for whatever. You get more depending on how much you pay for utilities and car insurance/maintenance and stuff, but assuming you're living in an apartment that's shared, you don't pay utilities. Any at all. And in a place like Toronto public transit is probably the best idea. $3 per ride, that's a $6 round trip, $120 for an adult bus pass good for one month. Obviously with a bus pass you get to go wherever you want as much as you want and don't have to pay.

Going back to welfare let's assume you get an apartment that's shared with a lot of people for $300. They pay your rent, that's completely covered. Now, let's assume you pay $100 for internet (Rogers is horrible and I HATE them) and then $50 for your cell phone, which I pay and I think is reasonable. That's $150($300-100-50) disposable income. $150 on food is A LOT. You can survive just fine on $150/month.

Now, going back to minimum wage, if for some reason you feel like you're somehow too good to be living off of what you earn, you can apply for welfare and they'll give you a stupid amount of money. Which is extremely annoying because that's my tax money, you freaking dirtbags. Welfare's an annoying and touchy subject for me because here, it doesn't go to the people who legitimately need help getting on/back on their feet. No, those people are HOMELESS! It goes to the stoner dirtbags who think they're too effing good to work and are lazy pieces of-

ANYWAY, no. I definitely DO NOT agree with your point. At least with regard to Ontario. lol I can't really speak for anywhere else because I know what it's like to live here. I have no idea what it's like to live anywhere else. XD Minimum wage is good enough. You can survive on it, if you don't like that go to school, work hard, get a good education and GET A DECENT JOB! People don't like to hear that but really, it's true. XD I hate it when people come whining at me like, "OMG, life is, like soooo tough. I work minimum wage and have, like, no money for the stuff I want but don't need. I'm not comfortable enough. blahblah communist bologna because I have no brain blahblah." THEN GET A BETTER JOB! It's no one's fault that you are where you are today but yours.

Good enough is good enough and if you don't like it, change it. And not by boosting minimum wage.

I'm tired and was probably offensive in my post. And I rambled and got off topic. XD I'm sorry. It's after 10:00pm, my bedtime is supposed to be 8:00pm. Life sucks. rofl

Also, your whole bread thing doesn't work, I buy bread and it's expired a few days later. A few short days later. Very short days... Like, two. lol And milk, too. Back home we used to get it and it'd take two weeks to expire. Here, it's being sold a few days before it expires. =/ I also live in a basement apartment, so bread moulds fast. I'm fine with eating it after the best before date, but once it's mouldy it's obviously no good. lol So bread does not last even a full week. Nor does milk. Or any produce here, they're squishy and gross when you buy them. v.v;; Maybe that's just Toronto? I hate it here. XD This place sucks. Please don't visit Canada and judge us based on Toronto. We aren't like that, I swear. v.v;;

I live mostly off of sweets to be honest. It's $1.25 for a bag of cookies at the dollar store, $2.00 for a big bag of Doritos, $1.50 for a box of cake mix, and $2.00 for brownie mix. Sometimes I buy pizza pockets and stuff, they're usually around $15 for 28 I think. OH! And pancakes. Seriously, I got screwed around for OSAP, so I went to my mom's house, bought 5 big boxes of, like, 30 pancakes(per box) and I still have 5 pancakes left. They lasted me I think 3 months. Just pancakes. Living off of nothing but pancakes the entire time. It was great. Especially because I paid less than $20 I think for all five boxes together. I kid you not. 3 months for ~$20. Yes.

It's ~$20 for a bottle of vitamins. I paid around that for One a Day. And you get a good 3 months or so out of them, so healthy enough. XD That's a complete multivitamin, though. It's important to get those ones.

The Bulk Barn is a really awesome place to go because you can get various mixes that you just have to add water or eggs to. Like, they have pancake mixes, brownie mixes, bread mixes, cookie mixes, cake mixes, etc. I get my eggs from the farm down the road from my mom's house. It's $6 for two and a half dozen and they're huge! Almost all of them have two yolks inside. Two and a half dozen eggs is nuts. lol That'll last you right until they go bad. You might not even be able to eat all of them in time. Eggs are very versatile, too!

I'm rambling and off topic-ish again. XD I'm so tired. I'm not even proofreading this. Proofreading is for class. XD

[Toogee]

Not sure about raising minimum wage because min. wage jobs aren't meant to be permanent; they're a stepping stone to move up in the world. In addition, as soon as that wage is raised, companies will only be able to keep so many workers. Instead of people getting paid more, more people are just going to be laid off.

[Jack]

(05-14-2014, 07:31 AM)Toogee Wrote: In addition, as soon as that wage is raised, companies will only be able to keep so many workers. Instead of people getting paid more, more people are just going to be laid off.

This right here. Also, if wages increase, prices will increase so in the end it would equalize anyway.

Then again, maybe instead of worrying about prices increasing due to wage increasing, we should worry about increasing wages in response to increasing prices. It's complicated issue; where does the problem start?

[Breadophile]

So, I have no idea why the fuck I thought it was a good idea to conclude this the way I did. Maybe it's just because I wanted this to seem like an actual paper. However, it obviously doesn't turn out that way when I do the exact opposite thing outlined by the scientific method: a baseless conclusion.

I fixed this issue.

You do make a very good point about minimum wage, however.

Pura, your circumstances are definitely very different. Your minimum wage is a ton higher and you have a shitton more welfare.

Would like to point out that there are some people who cannot make over minimum wage, so get a better job isn't the answer. Those sad saps. =/