Can't Afford a One Bedroom On Minimum Wage - Anywhere in America

According to The National Low Income Housing Coalition's Report, there is no place in America where you can afford a 1 bedroom apartment at minimum wage.

new report by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition shows that there is no state in the U.S. where a full-time, minimum-wage worker can afford the rent of a one-bedroom apartment, Vox reports.

According to the report, the national average Housing Wage in 2015 is $19.35 for a two-bedroom unit, and $15.50 for a one-bedroom unit, while the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour in 2015, which hasn’t been raised since 2009. In 13 states and D.C., Housing Wage is more than $20 per hour. The Housing Wage is an estimate of the full-time hourly wage that a household must earn to afford a decent apartment at HUD’s estimated Fair Market Rent (FMR) for no more than 30% of their income.

The data from the report show a gap between wages and rents across the country. In no state or D.C. can a full-time minimum-wage earning worker at the federal minimum wage afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment for his or her family. With the exception of just a few counties in Washington and Oregon (where the state minimum wage is $9.47 and $9.25, respectively), in no county in the U.S. a one-bedroom unit at the FMR is affordable to someone working 40 hours a week at the minimum wage, according to the report.

This is really beginning to get out of hand folks.

We don't bat an eye lash after having spent a trillion dollars on new fighter jets, but suggest we spend even a quarter of that on taking care of each other, or to close the wealth gap and everybody looses their minds!

What is wrong with us?

Even in instances where states have a higher minimum wage that the federal standard, we see that most people still cannot get by.



Yet as wages have become stagnant and increases almost non existent, we see the following trend:



And this means, we pay you LESS than you were worth when productivity and GDP were down. As we've increased these two mentioned things, for some reason nobody thinks your work is actually worth any money.

So, I post this thread and ask, why isn't income inequality the main focus of this election cycle? How is it possible that we have what ammounts to 40% of the population living under the poverty line and the other 59% barely making it by as 'Middle Class'?

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Getting as bad here in the UK.
I have just been looking at a one up one down tiny house in Huddersfield and they want 500 quid per month rent.
So plus council tax and bills I would be looking at 650/700 a month leaving me with about 200/300 a month for travel food clothes.
I just can not afford it

internet burped.

Internet burped.

I don't think you are expected to afford a single bedroom on a single salary of minimum wage. Poor people are supposed to pitch together and pile up in depressed housing ran by slum lords. It's a model we took off Mexico, Venezuela, China, etc.

So, I post this thread and ask, why isn't income inequality the main focus of this election cycle? How is it possible that we have what ammounts to 40% of the population living under the poverty line and the other 59% barely making it by as 'Middle Class'?

It's not the focus because a.) most Americans don't even know what to focus on other than how not to get evicted. In what world does their vote matter anyway? And b.) we don't decide what the focus is, the MSM does.

I mean #, after all the #ing nonesense since 911 the top media darlings for this election year is Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush. I mean hello? The fact that both families aren't already in jail should tell you all you need to know, to have them as front runners for president........Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Enjoy the # sandwich, housing affordability isn't comming to a town near you anytime soon.

a reply to: boymonkey74

Try it down here matey. In my area the rent on its own, for a pretty humble flat, not a palace, can be as high as seven hundred quid, before you even get to utilities, council tax, and so on. Its a bloody crapshow. There needs to be a re-balancing in the western world I think. We need to remember the real priorities, take the power from the few, place it in the hands of the many, and ensure that everyone has access to properly affordable housing, at a cost which allows those working minimum wage jobs to not only have a home, but save for their futures.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

You aint seen nothing yet!

Compared to the UK those prices are cheap.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Yeah my rent in 98 was 1800 a month in london was in EC1 though.
I could go the council route but seeing Iam not pregnant I will be put on a long waiting list (5 years I was told last time).

...and considering most minimum wage jobs aren't even full time...

a reply to: Puppylove

Yup or on zero hour contracts....(me).

What does pay minimum anyways

www.bls.gov...

According to that link less than 5% of people, most of them teenagers are the ones on minimum or below.



What is the purpose of minimum wage, for one to be able to feed a family of 5? to be able to sustain himself? nope to prevent one to sell his work below a minimum so there is no sweatshops.

Minimum wage represents the cheapest you can pay for someone to do the simplest task, not the money you require to sustain yourself.

If want to get paid more, work in harder occupations. I´m pretty sure an uneducated construction worker would have no problem sustaining his household, while an uneducated mcdonnalds worker will. if you want to work less hard and earn more, go for skilled works.

Back when I was a kid I remember Mom getting all weird about women's equal rights.

She now complains about having had to work as hard as my Father did because those who run the world used women's equal rights to go out and work as a reason to freeze wages when all of those women were suddenly introduced into the work force.

A 100% increase in the labor force while making the women feel as if they had won some kind of a battle when they were actually being exploited and abused.

Forward a few decades and we have this.

The same old # as always.

a reply to: Indigent

Answer: Teenagers and older people who lost their jobs of 20 years for numerous reasons most completely not their fault.

Every minimum wage job I've been to there's been both teeny boppers and older people.

Is nice to be able to pretend it's just teeny boppers isn't it? No older folk being thrown to the wolves in your world.

a reply to: Indigent

Not many harder jobs than mine and all for 7 quid an hour.
Not many opportunity of advancement in my work, well there is team leading but I prefer to actually support someone and not fill out meds books or count meds all day long.
All people want is a decent livable wage for a fair days work.
We are all cogs in the wheel and If you work well and hard no matter what job we should be paid fairly.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Inflation

Overprinting of fiat currency.

Plenty of places where you can all live in the UK miles better than other places in the world.

We're too bothered about paying for internet, laptop, phone etc etc If you're on minimum wage in UK and work 38hrs a week and still can't afford to live in a 1 bed flat then you're doing something wrong.

I know people who'd give their right arm for a one bed and a job.

Some of you don't know how lucky you are.

And if you don't like it.... change it - you're in charge of your own destiny. Do you all look for new jobs everyday? Or are you sitting and stagnating in the jobs you have?

Go moan somewhere else, you have to help yourself in this world.

Next time you're crying over £6.50/hour think of this:

a reply to: Puppylove

Think of the elderly? In the real world I live you make choices that will have repercussions later in your life, you should have planed a lill so you don't need to minimum wage on your silver years don't you think? Oh right the system screw you its not your fault, it never is...

a reply to: boymonkey74

Its your work really hard, you tend disable people right? how much of your day you idle, honestly tell me, you are here on ATS and at work, your work does not require 100% of your attention, nor its physically demanding 100% of the time, nor does require 10 years of training to do it. I know you feel you deserve more, no matter what you do or what you earn you will feel the same, everyone does.

You people want to live in a Communism pipe dream were everyone is equal, It doesn't work, capitalism is not good but supply and demand is a more natural way and works better than equality, if your job is simple, and you can be replaced by anyone in the street without any repercussion to productivity, you will earn poorly.

a reply to: Indigent

What is the address of this fantasy world of yours?

I wanna go there!!!!

Yes only like 5% are actually at the $7.25 minimum wage.

Around 35% are at the extreme pay rate of just over minimum wage, they make crazy money at $7.50 an hour or $8 an hour....I mean most folks earn bank.

Most of the construction jobs are gone.

The illegals undercut us all until it isn't worth it.

In the late 90s I could make $500 on a weekend doing drywall.

The exact same work would now get me around $150.

It is why I stopped subcontracting.

Why pay me $0.12 a foot, when the illegals will do it for $0.04?

How about we go back just a couple more years to the year 1994.

Minimum wage was $4.25 an hour.

The factory up the street started out at $10.

Today minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, that same factory starts out at $8 for the exact same work they were doing before.

So let's do the math here.

$7.25 for hot sweaty McDonalds.

Or $8 for hot sweaty standing in long sleeves and steel towed boots on concrete for 12 hour shift?

Honestly I worked at both places, Wendy's was much better for the pay.

Though I was 15 at the time I worked at Wendy's.

I was 18 when I worked in the injection molding factory as a machine operator.

I say close the border, ship the illegals back to whence they came.

Watch pay increase across the board.

But I'm just a xenophobic racist, what would I know about economics.

a reply to: and14263

The whole point is, that in 30 more years, that will be an american if things don't change soon.

Or do you think it is OK for our grandkids to live like dirt?

I prefer mine prosper honestly.

Which means that rising prices and flat or declining wages don't mix.

The price of everything keeps going up, the only thing not rising is the pay.

It isn't even a matter of education.

There are many with good degrees that are out in the rain right now.

It is the economy from top to bottom that is the problem.

a reply to: and14263

The reason people live in conditions like that picture, is because they accept it. "Every man for himself" is why that child and others live like they do. I always wondered why people say we are in charge of our own destiny. I don't think my husband would have chosen a disabling disease for his destiny if he were in charge.