My week living on the minimum wage

New York Daily News ^ | February 7, 2004 | HEIDI EVANS

[Martin Tell]

Boo hoo! She actually had to consider what things cost for once in her life. My wife and I always shop like that (and my 11 year old daughter makes her own school lunch as well as pizzas for us on the weekends). Maybe that's why we have money in the bank instead of having to sponge off "friends" and relatives.

[FourPeas]

That's a nice start of states where I don't want to live.

[LibKill]

How shall I say this? The author can kiss my unmentionables, repeatedly.

To her I say, grow up, assume responsibility, get education.

The world is not as I wish it were, it just is.

[Always Right]

Where is this lady's child support and alimony. This lady qualifies for food stamps, EIC, welfare, and many other programs. This story is total BS. There aren't many adults in NY working for min.

[peter the great]

There is a lot to be said for this. You would need to look no further than the illegal immigrant cleaners at Wal-Mart. The minimum wage laws I thought would never be violated and sure enough they were. Also you have to factor in the inflation factor for Senior Citizens. Then on the other hand the rats would always raise this issue around election time and hit the Republicans over the head with it, putting that in perspective what choice do we have? Maybe term limits is not a bad idea.

[1066AD]

Working minimum wage jobs; waitress, hotel maid, WalMart etc. One result is we now tip motel/hotel maids which we rarely did before.

[ctdonath2]

Thanks to minimum wage laws, a significant fraction of the population can't get work. Think about it: in NY, nobody is allowed to earn less than 20 times the world median income. WTF? Those who can't get work paying at/above minimum age are exactly those who most NEED work at whatever price their labor is worth! You can't by fiat make jobs pay more than they're worth, any more than you legislate pi=4; unnaturally raise the cost of labor and you put people out of work.

[tdadams]

All very good points. You ought to be a policy analyst.

[Libertina]

That was a true compliement, I thank you.

[oh8eleven]

"Just a note, but if she is paying her baby sitter $10 an hour
why wouldn't she baby sit instead of working for minimum wage."

Good point. Only 3 hours a day pays $150 a week.
Why work 40 hours for $206?

[dawn53]

Fortunately, I haven't had to use a grocery budget for quite a few years, but I still make meals that I know are very cheap and very nutritious.

I think people living on a budget forget how cheap it is to make dried beans (i.e. black beans, pinto beans, etc.) and serve them over rice.

Next day I take the leftover beans, mix them with the leftover rice, and serve it on tortillas with some homemade salsa. Nobody at my house seems to complain.

I think people living on a budget forget homemade soups (a little meat, i.e. cheap cuts, turkey thigh, even turkey necks if you're up to picking the meat off the neck), an onion, some celery, a carrot, and a bag of dried barley. Delicious hearty stew like dish that will serve 3 or 4 people for at least 2 days.

I can empathize with those that must grocery shop on a budget, but it's not as bleak as this writer makes it seem.

[dogbyte12]

exactly. Just assume that you have "minimum wage" skills. Your best strategy is to move to a place that has the lowest cost of living. Living in NY when you are only worth $5.15 an hour is a bad idea.

I randomly searched Jackson, Mississippi, and there are apartments for rent there for $365 a month. Ya get a $6 an hour job there, ya work 40 hours a week, and your salary is $1,065 a month or so. It's tough, but it is doable. Even for a single parent. You qualify for social programs, and you can go to school part time, and better yourself.

If you want to live in New York, have the skill set to earn New York prices. There are still places in this country where you can squeak by with a low income job.

[Bobber58]

"My Week Living on Minimum Intelligence"

[.38sw]

Good book on subject is "Nickle & Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich, she did same thing. An eye opener for me. I got it on ebay.

I heard her do an interview on her book, and as a result, am not interested in buying it. As I said in my original post, minimum wage jobs are entry level jobs. I had several of them in my young days. I wasn't married, didn't have kids, and was getting an education and some job skills at the same time. Minimum wage jobs aren't meant to be careers.

[anniegetyourgun]

And you didn't even mention the WA unemployment figure vis-a-vis other states!

[tdadams]

No kidding, maybe it's that lack of basic economic intelligence that has them working for minimum wage in the first place.

[imfleck]

I'm responding to the majority, not necessarily to you tdadams. Sorry if it comes across that way.

I love how nearly everyone who posted here mentioned that people should get an education and then they wouldn't have to work for minimum wage, or better yet, the one person who said they should move.

That's pretty long-term thinking, and it's great, but that doesn't put food on the table today, it doesn't buy clothes today.

How 'bout being a little more generous and sympathetic, instead of looking down your noses and saying "when I was in high school I knew I had to get an education." That's smug and it sickens me.

I agree that youth ought to look at the lesson taught in the posting and learn that education is the only way out of this miserable cycle, but what about the one or two generations for whom it's too late? They're stuck in this cycle of "don't have the education to get a better job, don't have a better job to pay for education."

[anniegetyourgun]

Doh! You weren't supposed to pick up on the fact that she could make more being a childcare provider!

[BlessedByLiberty]

Obviously we are all missing the points of this article.

1)Society is responsible for all of the poor choices this woman made in her life.

2)The child's father also has no responsibility for his child.

3)It's the fault of conservatives for not forcing her to pay attention in school, thereby qualifying her for a better life.

4) We are now supposed to be suffused with guilt and recognize that we owe her a good job, good schools, better daycare, more pay, better vacations and a better job.
Do you not get tired of the increase in homeless, minimum wage and other stories that appear whenever a Republican is in office? Of course there were no single parents living on minimum wage in New York City during the Clinton administration.

[Dianna]

Good point. Only 3 hours a day pays $150 a week. Why work 40 hours for $206?

Because she couldn't whine as much if she were making $10 per hour?