Judge dismisses lawsuit against Scott Walker over minimum wage (WI)

Madisonâ€” A Dane County judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker that was backed by a labor group and that sought to force an increase to the state's minimum wage.

Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford dismissed the lawsuit that the liberal group Wisconsin Jobs Now had helped bring against the Republican Walker administration as part of an ongoing effort to force an increase in the state's minimum wage.

The group and individual workers sought to use a little-known clause in Wisconsin law to raise the state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and pin Walker down on the issue during his 2014 re-election effort.

At that time, state law required that Wisconsin's minimum wage "shall not be less than a living wage" and allows citizens to file a complaint to trigger a state review of the wage.

At that time, state law required that Wisconsin's minimum wage "shall not be less than a living wage" and allows citizens to file a complaint to trigger a state review of the wage.

But how is a "living wage" defined, especially as per their old law? I would assume you have to calculate for a single person, as someone who is actually living on minimum wage wouldn't have kids as they can't afford them. (Ha.) (Also note, some of these numbers are slightly rounded for ease of not caring that much.)

What is rent in WI? Links below show the average rent is ~$730. (Note this is current rent, and there's been a recenmt spike per the link, so going back to the time when this lawsuit would apply, may shave a good $100 [$.50/hr] off the numbers!) Quick Google for cheapest - looks to have Madison and Milwaukee rent (more expensive parts of WI) to be around $470-$500. So we'll say $450, but you can likely find cheaper. (Especially if you get a buddy or three to split a bigger place!) Then, between cheap phone plan, utilities, and car insurance, maybe $250 a month? Which gives us $700. Between cooking at home and cheap food, you can get by on food what, $150 a month? So now we're up to $850. Given another $200 for other expenses, fuel, fun, etc. $1050 a month.

If you're using minimum wage as your "living wage", you have a full time job. A part-time job is not what people live on. So they're working 40 hours a week. 4 weeks a month, and we have 160 hours a month.

So, if we take $1050 a month, divide that by 160 hours, that gives us some interesting results. Minimum wage should be: $6.56/hr! (13k/yr)

But wait, we forgot taxes! The standard deduction is ~$6k, and the bottom rate is 10% (4-6% in WI), so we'll say we have a 15% rate on just over half the income. (Dunno if WI has a standard deduction, so I'm assuming it does and it matches the Fed.) No special tax-y things considered, your tax bill will be about $1000, so there's another $.50 we need per hour.

Therefore, our final minimum wage we need for a living wage is: ~$7.10 per hour! Which means, given the current rate of $7.25 an hour, our livable minimum actually has a bit of wiggle room for a slightly nicer place, slightly better beer, or maybe you can even afford a girlfriend!

http://homes.trovit.com/601/wi-price-rent-property-state

And, of course, minimum wage jobs aren't something one would expect to live on; neither would you expect someone who's been working someplace for a while (a job you live on) to still be at that minimum rate the entire duration of the employment.

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