How much do you make?

[SquareHead]

Ok I read a few articles and an getting more and more irritated with this.

I make $6.50 an hour. Am I poor?

This article irritates me to no end. What is this woman's problem?

Then the latest one I read

I'm not arguing one way or another about the minimum wage increase, but my complaints are the people that cant seem to live on less than that.

So my question is for more the US board members. How much do you make, and do you consider it livable?

For the record: 8.00/hr (as of recently) and yes very livable.

[Clements]

I make £0.00 an hour, as I still live off of Student and Professional Studies loans. Will probably change next year.

[Nightcrawler]

I hate discussions like this. Things are VERY different depending on what region of the US you live in. You can't live on $6.50 an hour in NJ by yourself. My girlfriend is a social worker and deals directly with the poorest people in our region. You'll NEVER get a house here for anywhere near a mortgage payment of $350 a month like that article. in fact, you can't even rent a place in the slums of Newark for that price.

If you go a few states down to say Maryland, it's already totally different and cost of living is MUCH lower. Over there you could rent a place for those kinds of low prices.

You just can't lump sum how much makes you poor and how much is required to live off of because it is that damn different depending on where you are as far as cost of living goes.

With that said, me personally, I have a salaried Engineering job, so obviously I'm a bit more well off than many. I'm not going to share numbers because I've learned everybody loves to jump to conclusions about your lifestyle, and your character based on nothing more than your income knowing absolutely nothing about your past or circumstances of living.

So, I hope this conversation doesn't turn sour like I've seen in the past.

[SquareHead]

I hate discussions like this. Things are VERY different depending on what region of the US you live in.

Which is why I ask if one finds what they make livable. I do realize that the cost of living changes depending on where you are. But thats also why I was so irritated at the first article. MT cost of living is extremely low.

So, I hope this conversation doesn't turn sour like I've seen in the past.

It most likely will. Since when does a serious discussion happen on the net?

[adventure_of_link]

I make $7.83/hr for 30 hours a week. I tried to get an extra day of work, but they wouldn't give it to me because someone would have to go part time, or there would be a lot of standing around because there wouldn't be enough work to do.

I'm trying to see if I can do something else up there for that one extra day, even if it is housekeeping. >_< yeah, I don't think I could live off $7.83/hr by myself.

[Que]

17.05 an hour is my wage. I work full time. I'm a manager of a local restaurant.

Minimum wage should be lowered, every time you stupid fuckers get an extra 30 cent raise, everything else in the market gets more expensive, and my money becomes more and more worthless. Personally, if I was working a minimum wage job(which I wouldn't) I'd quit on the spot, it's just another way of whatever pathetic business hired you that you're worthless and if they could pay you less, you bet their ass they would. In fact the restaurant that I work at does not even have a single minimum wage position for this exact reason.

I know, someone is going to say I'm a dick for wanting it lowered. Look at it this way though, when they bring up minimum wage, they increase the value of absolutely everything, and in fact it costs MORE for the minimum wage people to live, 6 months after their wages go up and the rest of the market catches up.

It only takes 1 generation to stop minimum wage, simply by refusing to work at it. Labor shortages galore, and everyone, even fucking walmart will increase their wages then. Of course everyone would have to simultaneously come to this realization and commit such an act... Maybe in a couple hundred years.

[Oskar_Hanberg]

I get 8.5$ an hours for 8 hours of studying 5 days a week.. but then again I live in Sweden and our income tax is 30% an the sales tax is 25%.. so I don't know if its comparable..

[Que]

I get 8.5$ an hours for 8 hours of studying 5 days a week.. but then again I live in Sweden and our income tax is 30% an the sales tax is 25%.. so I don't know if its comparable..

WHAT YOU GET PAID TO STUDY!

[Oskar_Hanberg]

WHAT YOU GET PAID TO STUDY!

Yes. certain people get paid, because they feel it will benefit the market when these people gets a job later, but I only get like twice the money a person on welfare here does, and again, we have high taxes.

[Johan_H]

WHAT YOU GET PAID TO STUDY!

Yes. certain people get paid, because they feel it will benefit the market when these people gets a job later, but I only get like twice the money a person on welfare here does, and again, we have high taxes.

I make ~$14.2/h + overtime, 44 h a week at the moment. I still live at home so I find it very livable .
-30% tax to pay for Oskar's education, heh.
It's pretty sweet living in Sweden sometimes for some people.

I do not live in the US and should shut up.

[Oskar_Hanberg]

WHAT YOU GET PAID TO STUDY!

Yes. certain people get paid, because they feel it will benefit the market when these people gets a job later, but I only get like twice the money a person on welfare here does, and again, we have high taxes.

I make ~$14.2/h + overtime, 44 h a week at the moment. I still live at home so I find it very livable .
-30% tax to pay for Oskar's education, heh.
It's pretty sweet living in Sweden sometimes for some people.

I do not live in the US and should shut up.

I let 19 years pass and without assassinating you, so you should be HAPPY to pay for my education if you want another 19 years :p but yeah it is pretty god damn sweet to live in Sweden sometimes, the weird thing is that I'm paying "taxes" on the money I get from the state for studying.. so the system is unnecessary complex and beurocratic, but as long as I get the money Its fine, besides I did start lookin for jobs now witch will lead to me repaying society eventually.

[Joe Camacho]

Nothing, I work for the labor experience, and as long as I keep studying, my parents must take care of me.

[funkyass]

Minimum wage is best decided by state goverments, as they can best set their minimum wages to suit their individual economies.

Doing it at the federal level just screws too many people.

[corronchilejano]

Adjusting what I win to the american dollar, i win < 2 dollars an hour, altough every hour of overtime is paid at 4 dollars. I work 44 hours a week full time.

This is because North American companies know it's cheaper to pay third world workers where working rights are shit.

[AntoineWG]

$16.75/hour including the $1/hour second shift incentive, usually about 45-48 hours a week. I usually take home about $1000 every 2 weeks, most of which is eaten up by rent, food and gas and I'm considering buying a new car, which I think I can afford if I keep the payments below $300/month.

I work for Menards, the largest home improvement chain in the midwest, doing computer support for their Illinois distribution center. I enjoy the job most of the time, but I'm not sure the lack of a normal life is worth the extra $1/hour.

[Starman Ghost]

Adjusting what I win to the american dollar, i win < 2 dollars an hour, altough every hour of overtime is paid at 4 dollars. I work 44 hours a week full time.

This is because North American companies know it's cheaper to pay third world workers where working rights are shit.

You must be french or something. In french it's "Je gange < 2$ par heure". In english it's "I make < 2 per hour".

[Stifu]

In french it's "Je gange < 2$ par heure". In english it's "I make < 2 per hour".

Je "gagne".

[Johan_H]

Adjusting what I win to the american dollar, i win < 2 dollars an hour, altough every hour of overtime is paid at 4 dollars. I work 44 hours a week full time.

This is because North American companies know it's cheaper to pay third world workers where working rights are shit.

You must be french or something. In french it's "Je gange < 2$ par heure". In english it's "I make < 2 per hour".

Location: Colombia (and no, not on the jungle)

[AntoineWG]

Adjusting what I win to the american dollar, i win < 2 dollars an hour, altough every hour of overtime is paid at 4 dollars. I work 44 hours a week full time.

This is because North American companies know it's cheaper to pay third world workers where working rights are shit.

You must be french or something. In french it's "Je gange < 2$ par heure". In english it's "I make < 2 per hour".

Location: Colombia (and no, not on the jungle)

I got it! He gambles and comes out ahead less than $2/hour of gambling. There must be a lot of casinos in Colombia.

[Neo Kaiser]

$5.15 but because I work at the university under the S&W federal program, I'm limited quantity of hours worth of $700 in total per semester. Only those who are on untrusted business like those of network Marketing can learn $80,000 monthly if they succeed but they are rare. (Very rare!)

[corronchilejano]

Adjusting what I win to the american dollar, i win < 2 dollars an hour, altough every hour of overtime is paid at 4 dollars. I work 44 hours a week full time.

This is because North American companies know it's cheaper to pay third world workers where working rights are shit.

You must be french or something. In french it's "Je gange < 2$ par heure". In english it's "I make < 2 per hour".

Location: Colombia (and no, not on the jungle)

I got it! He gambles and comes out ahead less than $2/hour of gambling. There must be a lot of casinos in Colombia.

... WTF?!

[Starman Ghost]

In french it's "Je gange < 2$ par heure". In english it's "I make < 2 per hour".

Je "gagne".

Oops, typo. I always seem to invert letters when I type.

[whicker]

When I was living in Glendale Heights, IL my hourly wage was $7.10 for about 30 hours a week. This was a complete joke. Rent in the area was increasing double-digit percentages a year!


From the second link of the original post:

"The debate about the minimum wage usually comes down to jobs. If Congress approves the increase, it will result in raises for an estimated 13 million Americans, or about 9 percent of the total workforce."

Oooh, wow, what an increase. The sky is falling. Sometimes I wonder what texan Republicans consider 'small businesses' to be.


How about some laws that would never ever pass:

For any corporation, the highest paid employee cannot be compensated more than 100 times the lowest paid employee. Some sort of formula that could not be abused would be applied to part-time or temporary workers. Under a system where people HAVE TO WORK because of TAXATION (property tax, sales tax, transportation tax), there needs to be some guarantee that the few will not gain total power and ownership of virtually everything because of an economic system where people HAVE TO EARN MONEY TO SURVIVE.

No single person can serve on more than 3 total boards of directors per year.

Go with maddox on the concept that it is illegal to pay an illegal alien less than what a normal resident worker would receive.

Companies cannot be considered as 'people' in cases where they want to take a single individual to court. Only people can take other people to civil court.

[Joe Camacho]

Companies cannot be considered as 'people' in cases where they want to take a single individual to court. Only people can take other people to civil court.

You don't have an idea how STUPID this statement is.

[whicker]

Companies cannot be considered as 'people' in cases where they want to take a single individual to court. Only people can take other people to civil court.

You don't have an idea how STUPID this statement is.

Urgh. It's late. I suck at writing right now.

Basically an individual in the U.S. cannot "pierce the corporate veil". However, a corporation has full ability under some Supreme Court case to be able to sue a person under laws originally written for person-to-person disputes. It's as if a corporation has been given the same rights as if it existed as a real person...