General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: WOW: In No State Is a 40-Hour, Minimum Wage Work Week Enough to Afford a Two-Bedroom Apartment [View all]haele
(12,647 posts)And not all 2/4 year degree students that just graduated are young 20-somethings that can start out in a Studio apartment.
One also has to consider that if the degree is above an associates, or if they got some sort of clerical or trade training, they are probably stuck with student loan debt, as well as all the other costs that come with supporting oneself - perhaps insurance (medical and auto - and renters), basic utilities, basic food - just basic utilities and the coupon-clippers trips to the market costs at least $500 a month in almost all states - perhaps more depending on how hot or how cold it can get. Transportation - unless you already have your bike or walk everywhere, even with public transportation, that's a good $50 to $350 a month. And if you get sick, you need to have savings and medical insurance - even if you're making so little eligible for food stamps and state supplimental insurance - so as a minimum wage worker, you should be putting at least one week's salary aside for the emergancies that come up.
In some states, a full-time minimum wage worker can't even afford an unfurnished studio apartment or to share an apartment/rent a room. When I owned a house, I had at different times two "rent-mates" working both a full-time and a part-time shift job to an average of 60 hours a week that could only kick in utilities and food they used, because they were trying to pay off all sorts of bills - medical bills, child support, college, bankruptcy - and it was just eating up their wages as they were trying to get back on thier feet. They ended up paying rent by helping out around the house (basically housekeeping for the room) and watching it while I was on travel, but still - minimum wage doesn't get you very far.
t usually took them two or three years before they got their outstanding debts paid down and/or they could get a better job and afford to move out - and this was in the late 1990's/early 2000's. It's even worse now, as the cost of living has gone up and creditors have been less forgiving.
The stereotype of the minimum wage worker being a teen/twenty-something starting out or a housewife taking in "pin money" has been unrealistic for quite a few years now. Many minimum wage workers are laid off with professional backgrounds or graduate degrees that can't find a job or can't afford to re-locate and are supporting someone else, so a cheap 2-bedroom apartment in a relatively safe area of town that is also close to mass transit, etc, is be a necessity - especially if one is on one's own and is looking at room-mates to help pay for that apartment.
The other issue with affordable housing (for minimum wage or just above) is that the standard in most places is the two-bedroom, which is only realistic for professional singles or couples, or a young family. There needs to be more three and/or four bedroom residences that are affordable for more established families and households where there are more than the "two to a bedroom room" members (that's the usual fire code requirement in most municipalities) - but since those types of residences aren't "cost effective" when it comes to community planning, there are not enough of them around.
Haele