I make $6.50 an hour. Am I poor?

[XCashier]

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...urAmIPoor.aspx

A good article on what it is like trying to scrape by on minimum wage in middle age. No SCs mentioned, but it's a good eye-opener for those who have no idea what it's like to be a wage slave.

[AirHostess]

Interesting read. That's about £3.25. In the UK the minimum wage for adults aged over 22 is £5.35, workers ages 18-21, £4.45, £3.30 for under 18's.

[Barefootgirl]

Don't forget though, the cost of living in a place like Montana is a LOT less than the CoL almost anywhere in the UK. Working 50 hours a week on minimum wage here would bring you in about £1000/month, and the "average" mortgage of £650 is going to take two-thirds of that before you start. At least this lady has no kids to feed, no school uniforms to buy, only her own mouth to feed. I wish her all the best and hope she can get back on her feet soon.

[ditchdj]

Makes me wonder how in the hell our American companies are surviving over there! There's talk of raising the minimum wage here and they're all bitching and moaning about how it's gonna put them out of business and force them to lay everyone off.

[wagegoth]

Makes me wonder how in the hell our American companies are surviving over there! There's talk of raising the minimum wage here and they're all bitching and moaning about how it's gonna put them out of business and force them to lay everyone off.

Yeah, right. That excuse always comes up whenever the minimum wage is raised here in California. They say that big companies will leave the state, more unemployment, yada, yada, yada. If some companies have left, we haven't really noticed it. Most large corporations have very few people working at minimum wage in their offices, so it doesn't really make a difference.

A good read is Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed, On Not Getting by in America." The author spent a few months in various parts of the U.S. working minimum wage jobs. It's a good read.

[Caveat Emptor]

A few years ago, Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me") and his fiancee spent one month working for minimum wage for a documentary. Sobering. She developed some sort of illness and they had to spend several hours waiting in an ER. He waited for a van in the freezing cold to pick him up for a temp job. I think they started with a few hundred dollars and by the time it was over, they had less than ten.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I will second that this is a compelling read:

http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-N...e=UTF8&s=books

[BookstoreEscapee]

A few years ago, Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me") and his fiancee spent one month working for minimum wage for a documentary. Sobering. She developed some sort of illness and they had to spend several hours waiting in an ER. He waited for a van in the freezing cold to pick him up for a temp job. I think they started with a few hundred dollars and by the time it was over, they had less than ten.

You can get this on DVD - 30 Days, Season One
http://video.barnesandnoble.com/sear...43244332&itm=2

[Kiwi]

I read the article and it seemed so grim, I printed it out and kept it on my wall.

I like to remind myself that despite grandiose promises of "progress" we are not removed at all from the poverty and subsistance level of living that people experiance in a charles dickins novel.

[FTGTF]

You know the sad thing is where I am the cost of living is really really high. I mean rent is high, taxes are high, insurance is high, etc. Now I make basically about $20 an hour, my wife makes $12 an hour we both work full time jobs and can barely afford to live in this area. And it's not like we own a nice house or $30k cars, etc. We own a crappy house, own crappy cars, etc. But then minimum wage here is like $7 an hour, and I can't see how the hell people survive here on that kind of pay. I mean someone I know they're making like $9 an hour, but they're paying $1,800 a month for an apartment.