Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to "Quite well on $5.15/hour"

I did say "as a student."
Tom Brosz — (archived)

Housing costs were minimal, as was my upkeep, I was young, and I had no family to support. I went to a state university. I lived during the year in a dorm, and rented rooms during the summers while I worked over the summer months, but liked the dorm since I didn't have to cook. I had student health insurance as part of tuition and service fees. I would have celebrated like New Years had I pulled down as much as $850 in one month.

If anybody bothered to read the statistics I post, you'd see that most minimum wage workers fall into the category of young workers.

Of the 2.7 percent of hourly workers that get Federal minimum wage or less:

Half of those who get minimum wage or less are under 24. A quarter are under 19. 84 percent of them are white. There are almost twice as many part time workers as full time in this category.

Over half work in the food serving industry, and the wage calculation doesn't include tips. Well over half are high school graduates, implying a "starting job." 62 percent have never been married.

Even if you assume that all the workers in the "married now" or "other marital status" category are family people, that's 1 percent of hourly workers, even less of all workers.

In 1979, about 13 percent of hourly workers worked for minimum wage or less. With a few bumps, it has dropped steadily since then. It was 3.6 percent by 2000, and 2.7 percent in 2004.

Again, this is a completely bogus issue.

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