To Fix National Poverty Crisis, Study Shows Even $15 Wage Won't Do the Job

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/13/fix-national-poverty-crisis-study-shows-even-15-wage-wont-do-job

w.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/13/fix-national-poverty-crisis-study-shows-even-15-wage-wont-do-jobThere are few states in the U.S. where a $15 hourly wage is enough for workers to make ends meet, and a true livable wage would amount to no less than $16.87 an hour, a new report published Tuesday has found.

Even making $15 an hour, which is roughly double the current federal minimum wage, would force a single adult to cut back on essentials like food or medicine in 35 states and Washington, D.C., according to the report, Pay Up: Long Hours and Low Pay Leave Workers at a Loss (pdf), published by the Seattle-based Alliance for a Just Society. For working families with children, the cost of living is even higher, while women and people of color often make even less than their colleagues.

Meanwhile, according to the study, there are no states in the country where the living wage should be less than $14.26 an hour.

"A wage that keeps families trapped in poverty and despair, no matter how hard or how many hours they work, is a national crisis," said Alliance associate director Jill Reese.

The nationwide movement to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour has captured the imagination of workers and won tangible victories in recent years. However, according to the report's author Allyson Fredericksen, $15 may not be high enough to lift people out of poverty. "Momentum has built around $15 as the magic number that will allow workers to make ends meet," notes Fredericksen. "But is $15 really enough to ensure financial stability?"

"Our emphasis...is to show just how modest a figure $15 really is," Fredericksen told Common Dreams. "It is not an extravagant wage and it is not the only solution."

[Sherman A1]

1. No, it will not

$15.00 per hour is way too low, but it would be a vast improvement over what we currently have.

I have contacted my State Reps and my local City Council to tell them that I will oppose any and all tax increases (and I am not against the school district, fire district, library district and other very necessary services getting more money) until such time as they act to increase the minimum wage. We have had 4 local property tax hikes over the last 2 years (along with everything else going up) and I am wondering just where the people are supposed to get the money.

[Ghost in the Machine]

2. I guess that also depends on the part of the Country you live in. In my area, people making $15/hr

live like kings... hell, even at $12/hr! It all depends on housing prices, rent prices and utilities. The plants around here that pay good money have people that started at entry level jobs right out of high school at 17-18 years old, and it's not uncommon to see 26-27 year old men and women living in nice homes and driving $30,000 trucks and cars. Those are the the smart ones, though. The dumb ones try to take the "easy way" and get caught up in the almost epidemic, for this small town, use, abuse and selling of prescription pain pills or methamphetamine and wind up in and out of jail all the time, then eventually dead.

I knew one guy who had a wife and a new baby, was making over $800/wk, got paid on Thursday and was broke before the weekend was over from spending his money on pills. They lived with his parents, didn't have to pay rent, and their vehicle was paid for. That's just sad, isn't it?

Peace,

Ghost

[BadgerKid]

3. But what happens further up the chain, especially for mom-and-pop style businesses

whose costs of doing business have been growing for years while insurance reimbursement rates they heavily depend on have kept pretty much the same?

Edit: After some thought, my current thinking is it might work out. Some customers would have an improved ability to pay for services (with or without insurance), and that money would be turned around to pay the employees and overhead. However, businesses seeing more money in customers' pockets may decide to raise fees. Looks as if everything goes up together, in principle.

[Major Nikon]

5. The economy is trickle up, not down

Creating a living wage would lift all boats.

[davidpdx]

4. Plus that raise up to $15 would in most cases be a slow one over years

By the time the min wage does get up to that it will still be woefully behind the rate of inflation. Hell I think even if it was raised to $20 an hour right now that probably wouldn't be enough.

[Javaman]

6. if the minimum wage kept pace with the actual cost of living it would be $27 dollars by now.

but alas...republicans.