Can you live on minimum wage?
Do you want an intro job or do you want to make something out of your life?You can decide whether you want to merely exist and share your existence with like minded people, or you can determine how you want to live based upon what you can present to others who you want to pay for your labor and skills. Ideally, it would help to have skills that would differentiate you from competition for the job(s) you want, and college can get you to that point.Indeed, to start, you probably will not have any ability to effectively offer your labor and skills at other than the market minimum wage. However, the value that you receive includes proving that you can show up to work on time, can follow instructions, and that eventually, you may also be in charge of other people, such as via shift manager. True, it is unlikely that anyone is going to pluck you from obscurity for flipping burgers. On the other hand, they certainly won’t tend to pluck you from obscurity for doing nothing. And meanwhile, which pays you money?Can someone (random person) live on minimum wage? Alone? Probably not easily. Sharing with a roommate? It gets somewhat easier. To get to the next step, it’s easier when you have a first step. You could listen to other people saying that a minimum wage job is pointless. Then again, those people would probably not pay a living wage for your skills and labor anyway, so what do they know? Your journey is up to you. What you do next is not/should not be dependent on random people answering questions on the Internet.
How can I live on a minimum wage?
Okay, you are supposed to believe that people don’t work for minimum wage unless they are teenagers, but guess what?If the only jobs you can get pay minimum wage that’s what you are stuck with. Those working these types jobs survive (not live) by working multiple jobs, I did this in the 1980s when I worked three jobs at once (40, 20, and 20 hours each). Another way they get by is more than one person in the household working multiple jobs.If they happen to be parents, their children are often alone and likely do not receive appropriate parental guidance or appropriate dental, eye, mental, or health care. They most likely live in an area where the schools aren’t highly rated or highly prioritized.These families will often not have dependable transportation, making it impossible for them to look for work at greater distances (one of my most recent jobs was a contract position that was a 65 mile commute each way), making it impossible for them to have time or transportation to go vote.Their children will grow up seeing their parents struggling, working very hard to get no where, they have no hope of getting prepared for attending college or even community college. But they see a guy down the street driving a Lexus with gold jewelry, etc. selling drugs. I watched a short news broadcast the covered a man who was released from prison after being convicted of selling drugs. He had no violence in his past and was doing his best to not re-offend. When as how much money he earned before he was arrested, he said he averaged about $22,000 per week. Compare that to someone working 80 a week at minimum wage getting $580 per week.In actuality most jobs don’t pay minimum wage, they pay slightly over minimum wage.Conservatives would have you believe that these circumstances do not exist, that these people are actually just lazy and stupid. They would have you believe that paying these people more would destroy the economy. They would have you believe that people choose to live (or rather survive) this way.If you doubt, take a drive through any city in Eastern North Carolina, Rocky Mount, Wilson, Tarboro, Mount Olive, Kinston, Goldsboro, etc.
Can you live off minimum wage?
Yes, cut cost to the bone. Depending where you live minimum wage is between 6-8 an hour. If you make 7 that is 14K or so per year. Find a free or cheap place to live maybe a room in someone's home or get several roommates, no car, walk to work. If you job covers medical you should do fine on 14K and minimum wage jobs only pay that the first few weeks until you earn raises. Working a second job on weekends or lots of over time or getting free rent for doing housework and you can even save a little.
How do single people survive on minimum wage ...?
Without government assistance... I think that should only* be used by people who CAN NOT survive whatsoever and would quite literally die without it. But how about people like me? 21 years old, single, no kids, working the only job that's available... Only being able to put in 40 hours a week because that's all they allow, making $8.00 an hour... $75 taken out each week after taxes. With the car payment, apartment rent (cheapest I could find was $450), basic cell phone bill (not a luxury, a necessity for some because of work), gas to get to work and nowhere else, power bill... There's not enough money in that paycheck for all those things!!! Right now I'm stuck living with my parents because I can't get ahead.. And yes they make me pay weekly rent to live here, but it's affordable, I'm just wondering HOW IN THE HELL do you ever have the ability to get out on your own and survive? Is this the reason girls shack up with some man, so that they can afford to simply live?
How do people afford to survive on minimum wage?
At present only 8% of the population earh minimum wage, (CIA world Fact Book). The vast majority of them are students (Weekly standard) So there are not that many people supporting a family on one minimum wage job. But for the others, they do it by having two jobs, having roomates, or family members who work. But lets take a single person. 40 hours per week. 4 weeks in a month, that is about eight hundred bucks. After taxes (which they get all back) they are earning about seven hundred. Take an appartment at $550.00 a month, (2 bed rooms, easy to find, I just found many in many different citys). 2 people splitting the room leaves about four hundred after rent is paid. Don't have cable (I don't) don't have a cell phone (I don't) don't turn on the A/C (I don't) don't have a T.V (again I don't). Then you are living off of four hundred dollars a month. A single person can eaisly live off of 200 dollars for food. Another sixty for public transportation. and you are getting at least a hundred dollars plus change to spend each month on other items. If the person gets a second job, or combines money with another then it gets eaiser. It is not a great living, it is scraping by. But it can be done. If the person is smart, budgets their money, realizes what they need to spend money on vs. what they want to spend money on. They can do it. I live very comfortable and happily spending exactly one thousand dollars per month. that pays off all bills. I earn quite a bit more then that normaly and that all goes into savings because my job is not stable. I am not wise, and not mature, if I can do it, then anybody can do it. B
How hard is it to live on minimum wage?
Minimum wage is different from state to state. But, usually the cost of living there is higher in states where the min. wage is higher. They are directly proportional. So, I'm in Louisiana, so I'll give you examples for that. Here the min. wage is 7.25. That means if I'm lucky enough to get a job that has me work 40 hour weeks (that's 8 hours a day, with 2 days off) my gross income is 290$. But I don't get all of that. My employer takes out state & federal and medicaid. That's roughly another 70$ that I DON'T get. So, my net income is about 220$ a week, or 880$ a month. Now... to LIVE. Rent for a 1 bedroom apt is about 350$. Lights about 70$. Gas about 50$. Water another 40$. That leaves 370$ for the month. But wait. We haven't eaten anything yet! Even the pickest eater is going to need at least 50$ a week for food! So, we have 170$ at the end of the month that we haven't spent. But there's always emergencies! How are you getting back and forth to work? Do you have a car? If so, then there's insurance that about 50$ a month. Want internet? Want cable? That's another 100$. What happens if you tear a hole in your jeans? You need a new pair of pants! What happens if your filling falls out? You need a dentist? My point is that your parent's are right. It's IS possible. But it isn't fun. You need something that makes life more than survival. Putting in the effort up front, gives a big payoff after graduation. I know. That's just more of the same that you've always heard. But you've always heard it for a reason. It's the truth. So bite the bullet. get to it. That way, you'll have pretty teeth and nice pants for the rest of your life. You DO want nice pants, don't cha?
Can you live off 2 minimum wage jobs?
You have to find yourself a roommate. Minimum wage is enough to get by if you work for 40 hours a week and if you live well below your means; however, you said that you want to live "comfy," so I highly doubt that you could survive off of one minimum paying job. You could survive with two minimum paying jobs, but you will be exhausted day in and out.