Minimum wage poll (experience, POV, science)

[doppelgänger]

Who here has worked at a minimum wage or near minimum wage job as their own or their family's source of economic support?

"Near minimum wage" here means 150% of the minimum wage or less.

Now, do you support the recent increase in the minimum wage or oppose it?

[doppelgänger]

Be honest please. This is for science.

[GeneCosta]

I am working at near minimum wage. $6.00/hour.

Edit- Though, for a living... hmm, I guess I read the poll wrong. I can tell you I buy my own groceries [on account of my vegetarianism being an oddity in our meat-heavy family], clothes, and car bills. At the end of the week I barely have enough to take myself out on the weekends. My savings for college come from gifts.

I work about 20-40 hours a week depending on the rush.

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by GeneCosta

I am working at near minimum wage. $6.00/hour.

Edit- Though, for a living... hmm, I guess I read the poll wrong.

The idea is to see how people feel about minimum wage when they've experienced actual dependence on a near minimum wage job. It's a matrix of experience and opinion.

[Buttercup]

As I've mentioned in other threads, the minimum wage in Oregon is $7.80 an hour. A decent one bedroom apartment is at least $550.00 a month. If your gross pay is $1250 per month, that's a tight squeeze. The median housing price in Eugene is $174,000 so forget buying a house.

[Kungfuzed]

Back when I was single and had lots of roomates sharing the cost of rent and utilities and no car payment I could survive on six dollars an hour. That's about 672 dollars a month after taxes. About 200 for rent, 50 for utilities, 100 a week for food and public transportation if I don't or eat much meat, and 22 dollars left for entertainment and no health insurance. There's no way one person could support a family on that with just one job. I've found that I need triple that just to barely make ends meet to support my family. That's for 620 dollars for a one bedroom apartment, 150 dollars a week for food, 350 dollars a month for car payment, 150 dollars for car insurance, free cable, phone, and internet (I work for a cable company), and anywhere from 80 to 220 dollars in utilities depending on the season. Perhaps you can find cheaper rent if you really look hard but it's not that common, at least near where the good jobs are. Perhaps I could eat less but it's not like I'm eating steak and lobster every night, just basic groceries. I could use public transportation, but only if I live in the city and work day shift. In my opinion the poverty level should be anything below 15 dollars an hour or 30 thousand a year. Anything below that and you're probably just barely scraping by from paycheck to paycheck.

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by Kungfuzed

Back when I was single and had lots of roomates sharing the cost of rent and utilities and no car payment I could survive on six dollars an hour. That's about 672 dollars a month after taxes. About 200 for rent, 50 for utilities, 100 a week for food and public transportation if I don't or eat much meat, and 22 dollars left for entertainment and no health insurance.

And if something were to go wrong . . . an injury or serious illness, theft, psychological problems/addiction, etc. . .

[Random]

Sure, I worked @ a hotel in the cellar ( ) for what was the minimum wage here in Eire for a few months when I was 19. It sucked donkey-balls. Where is the Science in this poll, Dopp? I'm curious. What's minimum wage to a Lawyer anyway? The clients SOUL?