
Full-time minimum wage workers cannot afford a one-bedroom rental in 95% of US - starpilot
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/14/minimum-wage-workers-cannot-afford-rent-in-any-us-state.html
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whatl3y
As a preface, I’m a white millennial who grew up in a southeast US middle
class family. I’m completely aware my upbringing and experiences do not only
not align with a large percentage of those in the US but probably even less
than say 20% or so.

In saying that, I’ve always understood and expected minimum wage jobs to be
one of a couple things:

1\. A first job for young people who live with their parents, or at least
aren’t depended on to pay the bills, who want to cut their teeth with what it
looks like to have a job and/or have some extra spending money

2\. A non bread winning family member looking to contribute a little towards
day to day bills

Is there documentation or something from the government that outlines
expectations for exactly what the minimum wage is supposed to accomplish for a
person? Is it intended to be a “living wage” or arbitrarily set to something
that folks in charge deem appropriate for some reason unbeknownst to me?

If it’s supposed to be a living wage it should be data driven based on cost of
living and evaluated on a relatively high frequency (at least once per year).
I know this is a hot political topic, but it just seems like another issue
that we could use actual data to solve based on intent of what minimum wage
should be instead of poking the right or left bears and polarizing the world
more than it already is.

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dragonwriter
> I know this is a hot political topic, but it just seems like another issue
> that we could use hard numbers to solve

While factual disagreements are generated over the issue, in part deliberately
to obscure the real issues, the disagreement here is more about objectives
than whether the policy meets agreed-on objectives.

You can't settle a conflict of values with facts and data.

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aminozuur
What percentage of the full time work-force in the US earns mimimum wage? And
for how long do they earn this minimum wage before going on to earn more?

