June 20, 2018

Minimum wage won't pay for a two bedroom rent in any state, city, or county

City Lab -There isn’t a single state, city, or county in the U.S. where someone earning federal or state minimum wage for a 40-hour work week can afford a two-bedroom home at fair market rent.

For most Americans, access to decent, affordable rental housing remains cruelly beyond reach. Only in 22 counties in the United States is a one-bedroom home affordable to someone working 40 hours per week at federal minimum wage.

That’s from the National Low Income Housing Coalition  report, which outlines the mismatch between wages and rent every year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

1865: 'Instead of the conservative motto, A fair day's wage for a fair day's work, we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, Abolition of the wage system' (Marx, Value, Price, and Profit).
1928: 'Earning a wage is a prison occupation' (Wages, DH Lawrence).
1965: Workers still 'don't realise that they can abolish the wages system' (Socialist Standard).
2018: $15 an hour by 2023 in the US?

There are over 578,000 sleeping rough in the US alongside at least 10 million unoccupied homes. Houses are built for profit not need. Thus, particularly during a slump, brick mountains, empty houses, mothballed developments, and unemployed builders exist alongside the homeless and those existing in sub-standard accommodation.

Anonymous said...

Meh, this seems more like a good thing. Should every last job pay enough to live on? That's absurd. Not every job creates that much value. And not every person needs that much money to justify their time. Give it up, communists. Inequality is a wonderful thing. Without it, we'd all have to go to zero.