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California Minimum-Wage Earners Work 19 Hours-A-Day, 7 Days-A-Week To Afford Rent
Thanks to The Fed-inspired fast-money flood driving up asset prices, owning or even renting a home has become unaffordable to most. Working a 40-hour-week, a single-earner in D.C. would need to be paid a $28.25 minimum wage for afford to rent a home... and if you live in California (and earn minimum wage), you will need to work 18.6 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week to afford rent. Thank you Ben and Janet...
Of course, if you rent, you have flexibility... perhaps move to Montana instead of earning minimum wage in California or D.C.
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These guys retired in the past 5-10, not 35 years ago, and cars are still simple.
In fact easier, hook up the computer, run the check, tell the owner the module needs to be replaced, $400 thank you very much.
Not really. Automechanics continue to make less and less, at least if they work for dealerships. Most cars are designed to be problem free for the first 100,000 miles or so. You need your own shop to make money these days.
Go to autozone, borrow code reader for free, $0 to mechanic unless it's very complicate.
You just described my retirement.
I did all those things in past jobs.
I think when the shtf, I'll be ok.....still got all the tools and equipment to handle any refrigeration, plumbing welding electrical, etc to make anything basic to survival still happen. I see bartering making a comeback bigtime.
Yup.
Threw in the towel, but kept all the hand tools. Can hang a double swinging kitchen door for a restaurant and get free meals for a month or two.
I notice a lot of "I could" "I can"-IF i wanted to..............-sounds like you CANT or you WOULD BE and are simply lying to puff your ego
maximum skills yet 500 people apply for 3 jobs-you are an insane pig-do you just make up your uh-hum='facts'?
America will soon have its own word for death from overwork
Here it is called karoshi
As soon as they get rid of Nancy Pelosi and Babs Boxer from Washington DC I will lift the curse and the skies will open and the rains will fall to the earth.
They also must elect a republican majority to the state assembly, remove rent control in San Francisco, return all the illegal aliens to where ever they came from and lower the business and personal income tax rates ............Until then no water...nada....zip.....get use to it.
That was funny
I was wondering about that, oh prophet Elisha.
If there's a Federally imposed minimum wage at some point, then my suggestion is a "maximum wage" for those that serve in congress and the executive branch, I'm thinking right around $7 per hour sounds fair.
I agree, $7/hr would be fair for most.
But, those are also the ones I'd pay $700/hr to just go home and shut up.
Most of those in congress and in the executive branch are able to live on $7/hr. They're not there to earn a living engaging in ethical and dedicated work, they are there to sell out their constituents for generally peanuts. I think those people sing 'dirty deeds done dirt cheap' everyday.
At least those indentured serfs, aka white slaves from Europe, got free room and board during the colonial days in America. Prograss!
Does this factor in payroll tax, Social Security, Medicare, etc., along with state and local taxes? Cuz if it's just "(rent / min. wage) = hours", then you're likely way off.
While I am sympathetic to the view that the Fed has distorted asset prices, I think the bigger blame goes to the government for allowing all hot money inflows to drive up housing undeterred at the high end, thereby lifting all properties with it with no macroprudential measures to cool the non-stop foreign buyers. Thanks to the lobbying efforts of the NAR, the US is missing out on a golden opportunity to slow down this madness driven appreciation while at the same time taking in incremental needed revenue. Talk about a win-win. Instead, it's lose-lose. For middle class Americans and the government spending machines.
Poor people get better housing then the middle class in New York. They get public housing locked @ 30% of their income. I am a teacher paying 1700 a month for a 1 bedroom and I take home 3000 a month, thats well over 50%I live North of NYC too. Our "family worker" at the school has a three bedroom apartment paid for by section 8 AND SHE HAS 3 KIDS IN CATHOLIC SCHOOL. Funny how the can afford a 3 bedroom apt. and 3 private educations and makes 30,000 less then me.
Ain't socialism grand? And the reason so many are not in the workforce is it's too expensive for them to work, lest they lose all those cushy bennies. What a country.
Amen!
After 10 years in NYC paying 50% or so in taxes ("fortunate" to be in top tax bracket), I'm ready to hang it up and go on the dole myself. I have a few friends who work cash jobs and get Section 8 housing (very nice/new/huge apartments), EBT cards, and now health care nearly fully subsidized.
It won't be long before I jump ship and switch to the receiving side....
It looks like Valerie Jarrett got the admin credentials for ZH from Vlad...
Why do people think the minimum wage is one which a person should be self sufficient? It's not, and never was.
Hey folks, the one thing that you are missing are the PROPERTY VALUES! That is, the artificial, state assigned value to the parcel of land that you live on or perform your daily job at. That is the secret to why the rents and home prices are flying all the way to the Moon! Local gov't will use the property values in order to get the money they cannot get from other sources, such as the sheep willingly taxing themselves. If you do not believe me, then go and visit lovely cities such as Lowell Massachusetts and tell me why the houses there are high six-figures when they are in crime-infested neighborhoods? You know the ones the White people flew away from back in the seventies?
Get a job.
What do you mean, you only have one job? I got three jobs! Seriously, though, when I was in rural NC last year, I knew a guy who was 65 y.o. and he worked three jobs, his main one at the local Walmart. Go USSA!
"Uniquely American"
"Maria Fernandes, Who Worked 4 Jobs, Dies While Napping In Car"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/28/maria-fernandes_n_5732230.html?...
Sad news
Globalists' delight
I would like to point out that in Puerto Rico, it's only 56 hours. Of course, your shit won't be there when you get back home, but hey, it's a roof over your head, right?
What an idiotic article. The writer admits that most minimum wage workers (except for the vaunted single mothers) don't NEED two bedrooms, and then further admits that only FIVE percent of US workers make minimum wage. She has no thesis, and no conclusion. Just a bunch of meaningless words strung together.
The Left has spent decades trying to get everyone to buy a house. They have inflated the money supply (via credit and especially mortgages) off the charts, which is what made house prices and rent prices so high.
And now, like night follows day, they want to complain about high house and rent prices. It would be laughable if it weren't so sad.
And by the way, the non-minimum-wagers have been forced to pay more than 30% of their incomes for houses and rentals, too! Everybody has to either earn more or spend less in a housing bubble.
Only a Leftist would make this an issue about minimum wage workers rather than tackle the real issue of the housing bubble and how it is still being propped up. Typical.
It also ignores the housing bubble that has driven rents through the roof. Have no fear though, the Fed is working tirelessly to drive inflation up to prevent the housing bubble from popping...
"Of course, if you rent, you have flexibility... perhaps move to Montana instead of earning minimum wage in California or D.C. "
LMAO!! I'd like to know how they came up with that figure for Montana. In Billings, Bozeman, Helena, Butte and Missoula, average rents run $800-$1000 for a 2-bedroom Apt. House and land prices are insane along with rents. Also, what I see and hear don't agree with what I read. Outside of some self-employed people, most blue collar and non-Ph.D workers around here seem to accept that they will be deep in debt for the rest of their lives.
Of course, I'm assuming that free-loaders aren't part of the calculation.
It's also possible the 69 hour figure was arrived at by taking an average of all counties without weighting for population, There are some sparsely populated counties in the state where you should be paid to be a resident.
I really don't know how the construction workers in Montana makes ends meet if they have to travel all over the state for various jobs. I drove all over the place and it is a long distance to get from one area to another and it actually makes sense to have pickup truck with giant bumpers so that if you hit a deer or coyote or cow you're not stranded in the middle of nowhere on a bitter cold and windy night.
it's called slavery. a time honored human tradition. get used to it all you rugged individualists.
I'm sorry but your use of hyperbole borders on the ridiculous. This is a far cry from slavery.
I understand the sentiment, I myself was a minimum wage worker back in the day when it was less than 3 bucks an hour for several years. I was smart enough or more aptly lucky enough not to have a family at the time and turned that job into a $5 per hour framing carpenter apprentice and night school at the local Jr college for several slow and painful years. Then got enough hours to transfer to a 4 yr school, framed part time while I carried 15 hours a semester. Sr. year I took out student loans, went 18 hours a semester and 9 over the summer to graduate with a finance degree at the ripe old age of 26. Hadn't lived with a parent since I was 15. They ran a way. Today I would have been a child services kid but small towns and low profiles avoided that fate. It was a long time ago but it is still a formula that can work. The mid to late 80's were not exactly boom times either.
Do not diminish slavery by comparing it to having a job making minimum wage. A minimum wage earner has the ability and freedom to choose where to go from this job. Do it the better than anyone else or enhance it with night classes until you get a plan and perhaps even a degree or skill in order to get a better job. No you won't have a fancy car or designer cloths and eating will be a luxury on certain days. It's not glamorous either but it is doable. This would be called working your way up the ladder with minimum wage being the bottom rung. It can happen and still does for some motivated person with a plan that looks further out than the next day. Now if you decide that this job that pays minimum wage is going to be your career then it is not slavery, but it can represent as a personal prison for that person especially if this leads to getting hooked on government assistance as it will disempower the person of low self esteem and one lacking self confidence which is fairly common mindset for someone needing to receive assistance. I digress a little but I don't think majority of people that start out getting government assistance intend on it being anything but a temporary fix. If the situation, for whatever reason drags out longer than the person thought then this will lead them to be afraid to try something new to break the cycle which risk cutting of what income they currently get only to be subject to failure. The person on assistance for a long period rarely feels as though they will succeed at anything which in turn leads to the "safety" of continued assistance. The system is set up in order to penalize a person for trying and failing and rewards the person that never tries. If you don't try you don't get assistance yanked. But you can "try a little", make a little bit of money without risking assistance getting yanked, but not "too much" The fear of losing the "sure thing" disincentives' new "risky" efforts that a person lacking self confidence naturally assumes will fail. Isolation ensues and adds to the mix. Human nature, such as it is, will give a natural tendency to choose a course that promotes the condition of pain avoidance instead of taking action that may (or may not) promote the condition of gaining pleasure, or success in this case. Trying with the chance of making dreams come true or failing and falling flat on your face becomes unthinkable for most. Much easier emotionally to accept the prison and the known safe and secure rations that come with it.
The last notion seems to escape most people when they discuss this topic. Assistance is viewed in terms of black and white when there are plenty shades of grey in between. For most people assistance equates to low moral character, a cheat and malingerer. The other end of the thought spectrum is filled with well meaning folks that believe in assistance in perpetuity or until a person can "get back on their feet". Assuming that no one ever "gets back on their feet after 2 years of receiving assistance this notion is often as destructive, if not more so than no assistance ever. The system is set up to fail from the start with such cut and dry thinking and rules that govern it.
In slavery, even the best most ambitious slave didn't have the luxury of working their way up the ladder. At best they avoided the lash. The slave didn't have free will to choose to educate themselves. Slave couldn't use free will to learn, engage in the type of work, move to an area of the country that more easily accommodated their careers. Failure was not an option either. Failing meant the ultimate punishment. Didn't exactly lend itself to living by the motto of "The only time you fail is when you quit".
Apologies for ranting and veering off topic though I see a connection. I will blame it on the insomnia, the meds and the tumors in my head. I thought I was done positing here a few weeks ago but catching a second wind I suppose. The reader is left to determine if I make any sense or coherent thoughts as that day may have passed for me.
Some good points. Thanks for writing
Well thank you for your insight. I do believe that assistance today, in it's current form, is destructive and, as you say, disincentivizes them to try to get out. Unfortunately, as long as government continues to stand in as the third party it will continue to be degrading and isolating. If assistance was locallyy based, if we were not taxed to the breaking point and given the freedom to bring charity home the way it used to be, through churches and local civic organizations; we could gain a little more dignity and lose a lot of the isolation that is inherent in this current system. To me it would be far better to give a little more help to a person who was in need and looking for a way out than paying that government employee to sit back and administer it.......... government always gets their cut though. Justice. Where can it be found?
You might add, Section 8 vouchers used to be set to "market" rents. Now they support rents by placing a floor under them. That bumps up house prices as well.
Housing is still in a bubble.
What does an employer value? Being on time, having skills, being loyal, sacrificing a weekend if needed. Paying someone a minimum means you get the same ammount of those qualities back. You will get a minimum of loyalty and devotion out of your workers and as soon as they find something that pays more, they will leave you. And you will have to train someone else to do the job. Minimum wage is an insult wage. It is very difficult to peform well at work when you have two full time jobs.
good job Barry - communist asshole
Concentration of wealth usually comes along with inflation.
It is always more and more expensive to live in a place that keeps concentrating wealth.
Nobody is forced to live in areas with a high cost of living such as California. While I'm strongly against raising the minimum wage because it will make America less competitive and slow job growth, I concede the debate is destined to continue until it is raised. I hereby state without a doubt, the minimum wage will go up! Polls show a majority of Americans support this idea.
It is my feeling that many people believe the myth this will put more money into the consumers pocket and create economic growth. They fail to recognize it will also spark inflation while reducing opportunity. New twist and wrinkles are being added by the White House and supporters of this increase every week. Expanding the number of workers eligible for overtime pay is another attempt to push this along. Unfortunately much of the impact and pain will directly fall upon small business the real creator of jobs. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-minimum-wage-will-go-up-right...
If minimum wage laws were not passed, do you believe minimum wages would go up?
When I managed restaurants and worked as executive chef in the 80's the average restaurant turn over rate was 180 percent. Simply put you trained almost two people a year for the same position. In some restaurant chains and more poorly managed private restaurants that rate jumped to 350 percent. Three and a half people per postion per year. The expense of just bookeeping and training can bankrupt a lot of restaurants before they even lift off the ground or dream of expanding into multiple loctions.
I have been management, i have been hourly. I have picked fruit to pay rent. I have been a small business owner. I have worked on the slaughterhouse kill floor. I have served food to rock stars and NBA and NFL stars. I have waited tables. I have cut meat for a living. I have managed sales forces in major midwest cities. I have trained sales reps and built markets for companies. I have worked in furniture factories and warehouses. I have worked summers since age 12 and full time except for two college years for 39 years. I have never paid rent on part time wages as I was quickly promoted wherever I worked. I was taught two simple things growing up. Say yes sir and yes maam. Work harder than everyone else on the job. PERIOD
Having said that I have managed those whose housing, medical and food expenses were paid by the 35 percent of my wages being witheld. Some of those who still chose to curse me and call me "the great white hope" and every other kind of name while I disciplined and or fired them. I am tired. I am sick. I don't recognize my country any more. I don't want to return to the 80's or 90's for that matter. I was too busy supporting the 40% that pay no Federal taxes to notice the country was being weakened from the inside out. There is nowhere in our founding papers that says a minimum wage job will guarantee you a home, a two car garage, a bigscreen TV your kids college paid for on top of it. I am sick of buying food for 40 million people. Food stamps used to be in booklets and had different colors for different denominations. Bring them back. There was shame involved in being "on the dole." No longer.
Today I look around while at a produce store and just listen. I hear Polish,,, Urdu, Spanish, Thai, Laotian russian. I go to a park with my grandson and realize 60 % of the people don't speak English or are of another skin color. Call me racist. You don't know me. I pay your food stamps. I pay for your emergency room visits. I have quietly paid my property taxes so your kids can have bi lingual education. I have quietly paid Federal Income taxes in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars over my lifetime. I have smiled as the clerks in some restaurants just smile when i ask them a quesition in English because they have no clue. I smile when I am handed a traffic ticket by an overweight cop making 85 K a year and retiring on 2/3's of the last years salary after just 20 years on the job only to take another job with a government pension.
I have had enough. I won't do anything about it,,,, just don't smile when I ask a question in English. See,,, that is my native tongue. I am a 59 year old white american male. I have owned no slaves. I have killed no indians. I have fed the beast of government all my working days. I have raised 3 girls by the book. They have married honest hard working men who love them dearly. They have given their mom and me 5 beautiful grandchildren. I owe no one a defense or explanation for my ideals. I taught my girls the same things my folks taught me. Respect everyone until they give you a reason not to, yes sir,, yes maam. Work harder than everyone else on the job. Their mom and I threw in one more thing raising the girls.
Choose your battles wisely. You only have so many in you. When you stand and fight give it your all.
It is time America. English speaking white America. English speaking men who grew up without full body armor when you rode your bicycle to take back our country.
I have ranted. I am weary. I am worried for my grandchildren. Will they grow up surrounded by UN blue helmets loving all pervision and every devilish culture and religion known to man or will someone with some leadership skills rise up and return this country to its founding principles? Private property rights, commerce,,, honest banking system,, sound money,, AH hell,,, forgive me,,, If you have read this in its entirety,,, forgive me for my rant. I am everywhere,,, I am white, I am 40-70 and I have had more than enough,,,,,,,
up arrows galore to notadouche,,, succinct and spot on,,, take away the desire to move up and you take away the desire to grow,,, you have death in part,,,,
I hear you. I haven't had slaves or killed any Indians either.
Our lives and ethics sound similar.
I'm tired of them taking what I earned to build weapons of mass destruction and looking for excuses to play war from their ivory towers.
Respect is good, too little of it around. No one wants to pay their dues anymore...
You said it all.
Very well said. Unfortunately your descendants are forced to live in a rotting society because the idiotic white people accepted democracy by proletariat, and were outvoted on all issues that would have prevented the rot and preserved the Founders' ideals. Now the country is far past the point of no return and the only way to get back to the original principles and foundations is the same way that it was created - revolution, not the ballot box. If the true believers are not willing to take up arms to restore and preserve their rights, property, earnings, values, society and government, then the exploding proletariat hordes who outnumber them will continue voting for the politicians who have the pedal to the metal on the race to shitsville.
Well said.
Your pain is understandable and perhaps the words "and Charity for all" have been taken far beyound what was intended when they were first uttered by that log cabin republican.
I understand hard work, done it all my life and I continue doing it to lead by example for my kid, my nieces and anyone else who will bother to stop and take a look. And I see people of all colors who work just as hard, speak all kinds of languages, believe and not believe in a God and dress in all manner of styles and colors with all sorts of body adornment.
It's not the image, it's the person. It's not the lifestyle, its the moral compass. I've seen the God-Fearing Christian Conservatives and they don't live the life they preach. I've seen the Islamic Jihadist and wondered just how far we've come from apes. I've seen tattooed, body pierced, spiked headed folks who would step in front of a mack truck to save a child that wasn't even theirs. I've seen cops who live by "protect and serve" even while those around them practice "punish and enslave".
It's the person, we've taken away the incentive to better a person by making it too easy to survive. We are so afraid of anyone suffering that we'll throw all the money in the world at it and they know it. Time to wean the children. Time to pare back the benis, make it better to work and earn than to sit and collect. Doesn't matter if you are Rep/Dem/Ind or whatever, the gravy train needs to stop. Bootstraps need to come back into fashion and the basic pride of being a worker and provider needs to be exalted above that of layabout and taker.
Your screwed. A white guy in wall street decided that his profit was worth more then your morals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjLmxxfBbIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m65BaAjhCq0
No... the labor movement only survived because we owned the world manufacturing base after WW2.
Nobody, ever, let me repeat, EVER, was able to afford shit on minimum wage. It's always been that way and no amount of crying will change it. Minimum wage jobs are not meant to support a family. They are there for people who have no work experience or are down on their luck or maybe a senior would like to pick up some extra cash.
You can try to blame the Fed all you want but they didn't invent minimum wage jobs. If you want to make more money, be a more valuable employee; be more productive; learn some new stuff.
Stop whining about this shit.
Exactly correct. The hordes of proletariat human garbage are physically and mentally lazy and intellectually incompetent, they don't want to invest the personal effort and sacrifice required to get more education, skills and better paying jobs, they just want to live their entire lives on entitlement programs and part-time minimum wage jobs with the same lifestyle as the successful people who actually did invest the personal effort and sacrifice required to get more education, skills and better paying jobs. Much better solution is to end all entitlement programs and just terminate anyone who fails to pay all of their own living expenses & debts, then the proletariat parasites will have an incentive to stop breeding like bacteria in a cesspool and apply themselves to self-improvement and self-sufficiency instead of a life of parasitism.
I can really feel your Christ-like love for others. I had a boss like you years ago who felt the same way. Unitl he got spinal cancer.
Parasites are always self-righteous, but that does not change their parasite behavior and does not make them worthy of life. ALL my employees PASSIONATELY LOVE working in my businesses - I pay below average base but have profit sharing, so those who really want to excel can earn to their level of contribution. One more thing, fool, my employees themselves have the controlling vote on who gets hired because the new hires dilute the profit sharing pool, and my high-achievers don't want their earnings diluted by parasites.
Less debt, less work. Dropping out, dispersing booked assets and self reliance (learn a skill!).
Court vacated plaintiffs motion to dismiss their foreclosure against me. Now will be filling counterclaims against the Banksters. Banksters quit after three years of dealing with me. Their evidence, wasn't! Forged note, imagine that. Well, readers here have accepted the fact that Banksters lie as a matter of course. The courts are just starting to see, against their will, the truth.
Silver beaches.
Massachusetts is in the top 5, and that is with a state law that caps property tax increases to 2.5%/year.
Completely shocked that my town sent out a survey about a tax override yesterday. </sarc>
They had an override on the ballot last year that lost 70%-30%. Apparently they are trying to get to #1 on this list and of course, all of the extra revenue is going to the children.
They get to swim and surf in Fukishima jizz for free, damn what the hell do they want?
If you think about what has changed, it's the government unintended consequences of trying to make housing affordable. By giving out huge loans with no down payment, that has served to drive the price of housing up. People don't shop by price, they shop by monthly payment. It's just like how health insurance has driven the cost of medical care up. You've seen the article? A guy gets a cut on his finger and gets a $9000.00 bill from the hospital? "Oh, insurance will pay for that". The cost is in it for everybody. By not having a market mechanism to set the prices of homes to reality (purchases used to require a substantial down payment), homes have become the target for speculators with other people's money. With real estate prices artificially high, it's no wonder rents are high. Thank Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for your high rents, and all the overpriced real estate in those speculative markets.
Excessive/oppresive big gov't is VERY expensive.
I guess my take on this is why does someone working minimum wage need two bedrooms? Maybe a 1bd/efficiency apartment if they are living by themselves, but not two bedrooms.
You are not entitled to 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms, you are not entitled to cable, internet, cell phone and daily latte or sodas. You are not entitled to go out to eat 1, 3, 5 or 7 times a week. The only thing promised by our forefathers was life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. No Guarantee.
Minimum wage doesn't support a family. Never was designed to. All this BS about a "living" MW doesn't hold water once you realize that minimum wage is designed to allow 1 person to live, not a family.
Course, if the government wasn't printing money like crazy and so far into debt that it can't see over the shit it's spewing, we actually might have a chance. But raising a Minimum Wage isn't the answer.
But it really isn't enough to support one person. Not without government benis.
$11.59 an hour would put an individual at 150% of poverty assuming a 29 hour work week/52 weeks a year.
If you assume someone the majority are fortunate and get a full time job, or two part time ones, then it would need to be $8.42 an hour, not the current $7.25 an hour.
1965 Minimum wage $1.25 (5 silver quarters)
2014 Minimum wage $7.25
(5) silver quarters (junk silver) = $19.00
Pro or con, it easy to see that wages haven't kept pace with inflation, which hurts the elderly (fixed incomes) and the poor the worst.
Sound money would go a long way to help most folks, but they have little to spare to buy silver, gold, etc.
Inflation or excess money printing cheats and is a tax on everyone.
Life isn't fair.
All of us have a stake in this game.
No one gets out of here alive.
Sad to say but true.
Just deal with it and take it one day at a time. Life by the inch is a cinch.
In the town closest to me the fast food workers that don't live with their parents live at the homeless shelter because of 1980 wages and 2014 rent. In another town the school teachers have to live in another town twenty miles away because the rent is outrages in the town where they teach.