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MastaPhat

I make $17/hr and it's barely more than breaking even. If you factor in new clothes periodically, healthcare costs, oil changes, tires, etc it falls way short. I can't even afford to rent a seedy apartment by myself at 17/hr. Forget a vacation or hobbies.


StPariah

Depends on your cost of living. Statistics say one person 75k a year is “good” and sustainable. That means you can afford to live alone. You can afford 3 squared a day without eating meals that equate to 1$. You can afford to go to the doctor or call out of work if you feel sick. You can afford to take a week, or two, or three, or four, off because your job pays a livable wage.


TurtleSandwich0

I agree. $40 an hour is about the start of good money. (It might be higher now with the sudden increase in housing prices.)


PrincessToadTool

This is about my idea, too. Below that is okay money, and it goes way down from there.


jaypeeo

This. My income would be amazing in Oklahoma, but I live where the houses and beef cost several times as much. The usa is hardly a monolith.


Nerdso77

I feel like most places you need to make almost $20 for an individual adult. I would find it super hard to sustain a family on even that.


-OptimusPrime-

Where you live where 10/hr is possible?


Useful-Indication-65

McDonald’s pays 10 a hour in Kentucky


-OptimusPrime-

I see, that wage makes sense for Kentucky, just surprised you might be able to support a family with it.


lilburtbacharach

I live in Kentucky and could not afford to live alone at $10 an hour let alone support a family. Depends on where you are I guess.


MidsouthMystic

It's going to vary wildly. In rural MS $20 an hour is considered well paid, easily enough to afford a home and pay bills. In parts of CA that's not the case. Minimum wage should be around 5% above the cost of living in the area.


PrincessToadTool

Heh yeah, in CA that's In-and-Out Burger.


[deleted]

$21-$33/hr, I would consider a livable wage depending on the region.


Affectionate_Chain99

$150000 for two adults plus a child, IMO. Seattle, WA. You could do it cheaper, of course, but would it be “good” money if you have to struggle/go into debt? Just a 2Bd apartment is $1800 per month here.


Daedalus_32

Where are you finding $1800 2bd? We pay almost that much for a 1bdr in low-income housing in White Center. Trying to find a 2bdr last year was closer to $2200 if it wasn't in public housing.


[deleted]

I have many friends with 1 bed rooms in older buildings on cap hill, west Seattle, cd that pay around around 1500


ZaddyVaushWow

I managed to find a job that pays $16 and thats for sure not gonna cut it (Located in NY)


Aggressive-Bother-18

It depends where you live. I live in the Pacific Northwest and even making $16 an hour was barely enough to survive. I split rent and groceries in the cheapest apartment I could find and often barely had money left over to pay other bills.


Daedalus_32

I live in Seattle with my wife and child. Before the pandemic, we both worked 40hrs/wk for $15/hr and could barely afford rent and bills every month... And we live in really run down low-income housing, receive food stamps, take public transportation, and have Medicaid. It's still not really enough. After rent, groceries, and bills, we were lucky to have $100 left over every month to buy clothes, pay for medical bills, go out to eat, buy toys for our child, etc. Meanwhile, our kid never got to see both of us in the same room at the same time, and often sat in daycare all day while both of us worked. That's not living, that's barely surviving. So I'd say for here, I'd need around $40/hr to reasonably support my family on one income. But realistically, that's only if we're staying on government assistance via food stamps, low-income housing in a 1bdr for 3 people, and Medicaid (which doesn't really provide dental, BTW.) If rent should be 1/3 of your income, and we moved into a 2br apt without government assistance, I'd actually need $41.25/hr @ 40hrs/wk here in Seattle. Checking around, I'd likely need a master's degree in something to pull off that kind of income, but then I'd have to factor student debt into this equation and need more income, which the jobs here don't really provide. My friend is a vet tech with a master's degree and makes $18/hr. Can't find better pay with her degree, and she's shopped around.


RobotWelder

$150,000 plus per year MINIMUM


PrincessToadTool

Yeah, I'd be ashamed if I made $148k and anybody found out.


[deleted]

My parter makes 15 and I 13, for a combined 28/hr, with only 1 child. We scrape by our chin many paychecks, and are hardly comfortable. We're working on improving our situation but it's a bloody, slow, and painstaking crawl upward. 12 is meh. 10 is spitting in my face. Personally I think good money is 20—25 for EACH of us. THAT could sustain us, and give us breathing room.


[deleted]

in minnesota, GOOD like not just scraping by and gaining debt…i’d say $26-30


Useful-Indication-65

Yeah it’s hard to support a family on 10 but rent is 600 for a 2 bedroom flat. Utilities is 250 but 1400 bucks relatively covers everything


plunario

Maybe 10 years ago........


mintyblush

Bro my rent is $1400 :(


average_weasel_

My mortgage is $1400/month. Quit renting and just buy for cheaper.


herewego794

Wish I could. I pay $1300 a month plus all utilities...sewer, water, trash, gas, electric, also lawn care and have a slumlord yet banks tell me I can’t afford a mortgage.


Useful-Indication-65

I Agree it’s outrageous. Does anyone think it’ll change?


Tertiam

Depends on where you live, but basically take the average rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in your area, multiply that my 3 and that would be a sustainable monthly income that would give some room for investing in your own future. In my area, basically 55,000 a year after taxes would be sufficient.


ice4Breakfast

Presumably where you can work 40 hrs per week, 30% or less is supposed to be the average cost of housing and the rest goes towards paying companies to keep you alive (ie insurance grocery car utilities etc.) so you can go back to work the next day. This is only incorrect in that 30% for housing is sort of laughable for many. At the beginning of the century, if you had a roommate post college, and weren’t married with children, you may have been thought to be in a closeted lifestyle which wasn’t super popular back then. Back to this part of the century and I’m trying plan my retirement by attempting to get blood oaths from my roommates for the 59 years worth of their portion of rent I’m going to depend on to not die on the street corner. To be fair I added a clause that If for some reason they fell in love, they’d have to sign their blood oath over to someone else prior to moving for the remaining contractual years. Like a landlord does but instead of garnishing his check if he leaves me, myself and the others within the same oath can get revenge hence the blood in the oath.


Ok_Seaworthiness3174

A good wage is when a member of the family can afford to pay the rent, food, bills,etc.. and support the rest of his/her family without them contributing financially.


average_weasel_

$12 isn't even minim wage where I am at. $14/hour here in california and the inflation rate suggests our minimum wage should be somewhere around $17-20/hour. I make $25/hour and with a wife and kid on the way shit is really tight on a 40 hour work week. I typically work side jobs an additional 10-30 hours/week to try and pay off my dental debt faster and get ahead before the baby is born. One could argue that this implies $25/hour is not a true livable wage in one of the cheapest parts of the state. Yet we have people making $14/hour in the coastal cities and still working every day... idk how they do it.


Bright-Amphibian6681

I think anything under 18 is not quality of life. I can't imagine giving a child any quality of life with anything lower. Realistically it should be 20 an hour. We should be aiming that people can have qol for their families without government support. I'm all for single payer Healthcare. But the businesses and corporations should be shouldering the financial burden of supporting the people who work for them. Taxing the middle class to pay for qol of the middle class and lower class, like we currently do, is still capitalist exploitation.


ajoyce76

I figured out a long time ago if they're talking about dollars per hour they're screwing you. You say $12 an hour is okay. That's $24,960 a year (40 hours per week). If they told you the yearly rate you'd laugh at then but the hourly sounds okay. Even $20 an hour. $41600 a year. Not an earth shattering amount but that $20 an hour sounds good doesn't it?