What will 1 hour of work at minimum wage buy in your country?

a reply to: tigertatzen

$7.25 seems pretty low when I do the currency exchange, £4.72 an hour.
The other way around, £6.50 for an hour in the UK = $9.97

We are taxed heavily on purchased goods here though, between 5-20% (Sales tax) except for food and childrens clothes which are exempt.

How much petrol/gas will that $7.25 buy where you are?
I'm happy to do the conversion, just curious as about 60 pence in every £1.00 of fuel here goes to the government in tax.

originally posted by: caladonea
a reply to: grainofsand

I live in the U.S. (Seattle) and for me where I shop for groceries; $15.00 would buy me 2 days worth of food.

Is $15 the minimum wage hourly rate in Seattle?
That's double the $7.25 another member posted on the previous page.
...note to myself, move to Seattle if I ever live in the US

a reply to: grainofsand

3/4 of a can of tuna, 1/10th of a salmon (bones included), 1/2 a bag of Katnip, 1/5 a bag of Katlitter, 1 chew toy, and a partridge in a pear tree!

24 cans of Pepsi

a reply to: spiritualKat33

Haha, in true cat style!

How big are the cans of tuna?
I can buy nearly 9 cans for an hour at minimum wage in the UK. They are 160gm cans though (5.64 ounce cans)
I treat Molly my cat sometimes but she's a proper 'street cat' and will eat pretty much anything.

a reply to: grainofsand

I only eat Solid Albacore tuna in water, it is very expensive! No such thing as a "proper" street cat! Especially if she will eat anything! I am offended by the usage of the term "proper", since no self appreciating Kat would ever eat anything that wasn't properly served!

a reply to: grainofsand

The problem is that cost of living plays a big role, so it's impossible to generalize what the federal minimum wage can buy in America, for instance, because the cost of living in Russellville, Kentucky (quite rural and away from major cities) is completely different than San Francisco, California.

This is one reason why a federal increase to a "living wage" is such a terribly concocted idea--there shouldn't even be a federal minimum wage, because in order for a Russellville business owner to meet, say, a $12 minimum wage, they're going to really have to consider laying people off, because they don't have the population or the average resident income to be able to absorb the newly increased cost of doing business by raising prices alone.

I know that's derailing the question, and I'm sorry, but the reality is that a question like that (as proposed in the thread title) is ill-conceived.

But in the Cincinnati, Ohio area--quite an expensive place to live, surprisingly enough--the current minimum wage of $7.25/hour, would net you less than three gallons of gas. I hope that they don't work too far from home.

ETA: On an interesting note, Ohio's minimum wage is $8.10, but drops down to the lower federal standard of $7.25 for companies grossing less that $283,000. At least that seems to try to make a little effort to not overwhelm small businesses or rural towns.

a reply to: spiritualKat33

Haha! You don't know my molly!
No stupid collar, tried it once and half an hour later she had ripped it off with her back paws, never again.
Comes and goes as she pleases, disappears for days, then comes back when she needs patching up after fighting with rats or whatever. She runs the catnip racket in the area, and every house cat is # scared of her.

Cheap as well, one hours work at minimum wage will buy 18 and a half tins of the cheapest cat food.
20 tins if I buy her the cheapest dog food lol

A supersized meal at McDonalds and MAYBE an apple pie.
A very cheap bottle of booze. The kind of stuff that tastes like the first drip off a batch of Moonshine. (AKA Poison)
A used CD.
A cheap book.

Not really anything.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

I agree, with a country as vast as the US then any national minimum wage would seem bizarre.
Same if the EU tried it here, cost of living in say rural Romania is peanuts compared to the UK.

I still think it is an interesting comparison though, no matter how ill-conceived you think it may be, you know, what will an hours work at minimum wage buy a person depending on where they live. I liked the Cincinnati, Ohio/3 gallons of gas thing.
How many gallons could the same person buy in say New York?

The answers do tell a true and realistic story about the folk in different areas and how their lives differ.

a reply to: jaymp

McD's stopped selling 'supersized' meals in the UK so I can't make the comparison.
How many of their cheapest McD's cheeseburgers will it buy, you know, the ones with the gherkin pretty much everyone takes out?

2200 one penny sweets, or something else that would cost 22 UK pounds.

a reply to: Coagula

Haha, fair enough!
Does that mean minimum wage for an hour where you are is £22.00 after you do the currency conversion?
Wow, that seems high, I'm guessing you live in a nation where it is pretty expensive to live.
Any chance you could share what that hours work will buy you in local products, petrol/gas, McDonalds, whatever?

3 40 oz malt liquors.
A pack of smokes and some pocket change.
About 1/3 of a pound of decent beef.
3 gallons of gasoline.
A six pack of decent beer.

a reply to: skunkape23

That hour of work buys more than I could here, but with smokes and petrol/gas it's due to the massive taxes charged by the government.
Just done the conversion, 11.3 litres of petrol, wow, that is double the amount someone in the UK could buy.
It's a good job we are a small nation with small engined cars lol

a reply to: grainofsand

I agree that it's interesting, just impossible to peg down an answer for the entire nation.

New York Gas

Cincinnati Gas

Los Angeles Gas

Anchorage, Alaska Gas

Some big difference, depending on where you live...and how much gas tax the state adds on per gallon.

Taxes everywhere!

ETA: The amount per gallon in KY is $0.46 higher than it otherwise would be if there were no state and federal gas tax. That's not chump change in the long run, but it (supposedly) goes to pay for public road maintenance and construction, so it's necessary, I guess--even though they don't only use it for those things.

a reply to: grainofsand

Going by the Big Mac Index

In the US they could only offered about 1.5 big macs from one hours minimum wage. In the UK they could offered proximity 2.5 and in Australia it's about 3.75 big macs for 1 hours minimum wage.

a reply to: grainofsand

I remember when I was stationed in Germany for 3.5 years--the cost of gas per litre was ridiculous compared to what we paid for in the States. Luckily, we had gas stations on post that sold at prices more equivalent to our home country than host country, but we were only allowed so much gas per month (I guess so that we didn't purchase it for local nationals...I don't know).

a reply to: grainofsand

Me and Molly need to have a Katchat!

originally posted by: grainofsand

originally posted by: caladonea
a reply to: grainofsand

I live in the U.S. (Seattle) and for me where I shop for groceries; $15.00 would buy me 2 days worth of food.

Is $15 the minimum wage hourly rate in Seattle?
That's double the $7.25 another member posted on the previous page.
...note to myself, move to Seattle if I ever live in the US

In the US, minimum wage and what you can do with it will vary widely from place to place because just because the Fed has set a minimum rate doesn't mean that's what it will be in your state or even in your city. Both of those have the power to change the rate upward as they choose.

Also, the standard of living will vary widely too, so how far your minimum wage can go will also vary. For example, I live in Missouri which has the lowest price for a pack of cigarettes at $5.25 with a gallon of gas currently averaging around $2.60.