It’s a great job for someone in Mexico or India.
America, welcome to globilization.
________
Middle class workers at large accounting firms in India make $3,000 a year and that is a good salary. It all depends on your perspective and how much “stuff” you feel the need to pay for. Ditch your cable and internet and you will save money. don’t go into student loan debt. Work while in college. It might take an extra 2 years, but that is better than spending 10 years paying off student loan debt.
Hmm,$12/hr. 33 avg hrs/wk. About $400/wk,or $800 /pay for two. $20400/yr,if my math is right. Subtract 10 % of $12000 (first $8000 lost its tax bracket,second $15000 or so taxed at 10%),or $1200/26=roughly $200 fed tax/pay.
Subtract another 10% combined ss/med and state tax, =roughly $500/pay. No other deductions (health care,etc.) . Anyone able to live on a grand a month after being laid off/rehired at the new standard? Say, with kids from a former salary? Alimony from the stress of the unemployment? No, I’d say these are terrible wages, if prevailing, for mid-career employees. Soon, everyone will have to shed their old lives and declare bankruptcy to
live these new ones.
Who ever said it was supposed to be a living wage? It is not the wage one will make for eternity, but rather just the STARTING wage. As skills and experience develop, so will the wage. If you’re trying to support a family on it, good luck – but by the time you’re trying to support a family you should be somewhat more advanced in your career than a starting wage.
Also, basic free market economics would dictate that if there are more people than jobs (i.e. unemployment) the wage is greater than equilibrium. I’d bet one of the people who don’t have a job would be quite content replacing a $12/hr worker at $11.5 or maybe even less. If $12 isn’t enough for someone otherwise out of work, they must value their free time very much. If one feels that their wage is not fair, by all means procure a job with one that is. When one realizes that they can’t, best to keep quiet about it, because the unfairness might just be in their favor.
“$12 per hour is not a decent wage. The solution to that is to raise the minimum wage to a level that will at least pay the living costs of an individual.
Businesses that can figure out how to make money paying those wages will succeed and those that can’t will fail. That’s the way capitalism is supposed to work.”
Am I the only one who finds the above at least partially oxy-moronic? Minimum wage and true free-market capitalism don’t mix.
I agree with other readers, who are outraged. The very fact that we’re even talking about $12/hr being a decent wage is an example of how the media, the Congress AND the White House are ALL out of touch with reality. This is also a reflection of the fact that we, the U.S., don’t make enough things any more that add VALUE to the economy. Too much manufacturing has been “outsourced” to overseas locations, and thus there are not enough industries left on U.S. soil that make valuable items that allow workers to be paid good wages. This is why the so-called “service economy” is a joke—and I blame BOTH political parties for this joke of an economy.
And while some of you out there are complaining about $70/barrel oil, I would remind you how difficult and expensive the process of finding and producing new oil has become. The oil and natural gas industry, contrary to what you may believe, is VERY high-tech, utilizing computer simulations, complex equipment and great amounts of engineering. YET, the oil and gas industry is one of the most productive sectors of the economy, and it provides a higher proportion of good-paying jobs than almost any other industry. And if some of the coastal states in this country would open their coastlines to some drilling, you might make up some of your budget deficits through offshore royalties from oil and gas production—I particulary aim this comment at the selfish people in California, who want everyone else to provide for their needs without being more self-sufficient. You could reduce your state deficit by exploiting known oil reserves FAR (not within eyesight) off your coastline.
I fear that $12.00/hour will not be a living wage for many people. I realize that compromises will be made in this world economy and the U.S. will take a hit on wages as we compete not only in a domestic sense but in an international arena also. It certainly looks like frugality will be needed to sustain in this environment. One fact really scares me, the taxes to support all this government spending will be huge and this will limit the savings of most working people. All things considered it will be a new ballgame for the American middle class working folks, it appears that the count is no balls and two strikes with a wicked curve ball coming.
$12.00 an hour for an entry level job is not off the charts. Where a person lives, their education, position and finally profits generated from the business are all determining factors. Let me add, although education is often insisted upon by employers, it rarely is a determining factor in job performance. The education issue for many jobs is used to determine drive and initiative not the ability to perform a job. Most positions can be successfully taught in 2 – 3 weeks with a person of average intelligence. In some instances, there are people that are truly gifted, well educated and shouldn’t have to settle for junk employment. I have met only a small number of these people and all were doing quite well for themselves.
I make $14/hour, working for the federal gov’t in the DC area. I got a BA from a good school in 2007, and all the exciting debt that goes along with that. I live about an hour from work (taking the subway) and rent a bedroom in 3-bed apt. With utilities and a cell phone, it’s about 45-50% of my pay.
It’s not enough to live on. I’ve been working for a while now and still don’t have any savings. My debt isn’t going down nearly as quickly as I’d prefer. I’d move to some place cheaper, but nearly any place else I’d have to buy a car, and I’m not really in a financial position to do that. So I’m looking for something part time or on the weekends. Restaurants aren’t really hiring in the area, so I’m checking supermarkets and hotels for work too.
After a full year of searching, I’ve given up looking for a job that would more closely match my skills. I’ve got an honors degree and I can speak Chinese pretty well. Unfortunately, neither of these are in high demand. My goal now is to work down my debt, and then maybe go back to graduate school once I can get some new loans. Will that really lead to a new job though? In this market, nobody knows.
It amazes me that some posters on here think that $12.00hr is “good pay”. I also find it amusing that some think college should dictate what someone is paid. While I think college is ok it does not guarantee success nor does it mean someone without a degree is less of an employee. Many highly successful people do not have degrees. I consider myself lucky. I have been laid off in the past from a job making $65,000 and it took me 3 years to get myself back up to $46,000(over $22hr) which is not a lot of money. I am still relatively young and it worries me where this country is going. Regular hard working Americans cannot make $12hr yet CEOs get paid millions to bankrupt companies. We sold our souls a long time ago by outsourcing many of our better paying jobs. All I have to say is “Would you like to supersize that order”? Wake up people before its too late.
It’s funny how I know of plenty of immigrants who make $5-$10/hr and is able to survive, in addition to being able to save and send monies home to family.
I currently live in Los Angeles and originally from New York City for 30 years. These are probably 2 of the more expensive cities to live in and these immigrants survive just fine.
How do they do it? Ask yourself this, do you need or do you want? Most of us feel entitle to this and that b/c we’re AMERICANS.
If you don’t like $12/hr, go make more. Isn’t this AMERICA where you can do anything you want? People who complain obviously don’t want to do anything and make CEO pay b/c you’re an AMERICAN.
For those who feel that we are becoming a 3rd world country, have you every been to a 3rd world country? Most AMERICANS have never traveled and have no clue how the rest of the world lives (besides what is told to us by the media)b/c we’re AMERICANS.
I love it when I hear people say, “$12/hr is beneath me and I rather not work”. I’m an AMERICAN and I deserve $20/hr, $40/hr.
Good luck to everyone who stride for more and not merely waiting on others to provide.
It isn’t the wage that concerns me as much as how this country got there. Businesses have to make a profit to keep running. Taxes at all levels, profit, payroll, inventory, etc have been taking an ever increasing bite out of profits. That leaves few places to cut and wages usually are one of them. So let’s cut taxes on businesses contingent that any tax cuts go right into payroll. That would create real economic stimulus. Don’t agree with my plan? Why do you think goods and services cost so much in the EU? Wages are as low as they’re likely to get in Europe. So prices keep going up. That shirt that’s $25 – $35 here; try $70 – $90 in Europe. My math ain’t bad.
For someone who is relaticely uneducated and unskilled, $12/h is a lot. As a graduate student, I earn just under $22K/year, which works out to just under $9/h given I work at least 50 hours/wk. It is plenty to support myself and save about $8K/yr. This is done by not having internet, cable, or phone. Internet is available at school or the library. I go to the movies once or twice a year and don’t buy alcohol. A single person who can’t live on $12/h is being wasteful with their money.
Here in Florida I was earning $15 per hour for the last 17 years. As a freelance graphic designer there was a glut of new graduates every year and more artists than jobs. This is also a right to work state. So the pay remained and still remains poor.
Kevin,
You tried to make a decent point, BUT you still missed the mark, my friend. An individual making 12/hour still will pay some level of Fed & state taxes (albeit minimal) and they will still need to file their taxes in April (to supposedly get their money back), but let’s remember that they did lose the ability to use those taken tax dollars at the time they were earned so they were not available to be used to live in the moment. Buyers still need to pay many types of sales taxes and fees for basic services in this country (license, auto registrations, banking, etc, etc, etc) so when you do the REAL analysis, so DO IN FACT lose almost 50% of your earned income to taxes and fees, you just don’t feel it all at once because we are nickel and dimed to death here in the go ole US of A. It many be different in Canada, but I doubt it.
Income tax is NEVER moot. If you earn money, it will be taxed, one way or another, and taxes NEVER go down or away. In the present state of the economic condition taxes are going to skyrocket, by the way.
Their is no way $12/hour is a living wage to cover even the most basic of services here in the USA. $12/hour for a kid living at home with Mom & Dad covering all the other big ticket expenses is one thing, but living either on your own or trying to support a wife and/or children is damn near next to impossible.
It takes big dollars to live even remotely frugally well in this country and 12/hour is not big money.
$12 an hour is a terrible wage. I am 25 and make a little over $20 an hour which I also consider pretty bad (I have a bachelors degree.) I would not want to start a family on my current wage so I can’t even imagine trying it on so much less.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a family consisting of 1 parent and 1 child living in rural Arkansas would need a net income of $24,236 in order to meet their basic necessities. That’s $236 more than the gross income $12/hr would supply.
It’s not that $12/hr is unfair, it’s the outrageous cost of everything else that is.
Many of the comments here display just how prevalent fiscal ignorance is in this country. Let’s do the math: $12/hr = $24,000 per year. If you are single and claim the standard deductions that let you break even at tax time (neither owing nor receiving a refund) then your tax burden will be anywhere from 18% – 22% (NOT 50% as one poster suggested.). So let’s assume the average, 20%. That leaves you with a net (take-home) pay of $19,200 a year, or $1,600 per month.
Now, standard sensible budget guidelines recommend allowing yourself 25% of your net pay for housing, either rent or mortgage payment. At the above income, that means you would have to be able to secure housing for a maximum of $400 a month. So look around your town – can you find a decent apartment for $400 or less? I’m not talking luxury, just clean and safe. In my town you can’t rent for less than $600 per month, and that’s in a crack neighborhood.
By the same budgeting standards, food costs should be 15% of net pay. That comes to $240 a month – just $60 a week, or about $8.50 a day. Actually, if you take 15% of the yearly net ($19,200 x .15 = $2,880) and divide by 365 days in a year, it amounts to $7.89 per day. Think about it – can you feed yourself for $7.89 a day?
I could go on, but you get the picture. $12 is not a living wage. There may be parts of the country where a person can squeak by on that amount, but these wages are not just being paid in the sticks. I live in the 7th largest city in the country and $10-$12/hr is now the going rate all over town. I went from $25/hr to $13/hr after being laid off for 7 months. And I AM skilled, and have years of experience in my field, so that has little bearing on the matter as another poster suggested (as in “either increase your worth so you can command a higher wage, or simply don’t have kids”.) You think it’s just that easy, Kevin in Ontario? Yet, I’m one of the luckier ones – I have never lived beyond my means. I have no outstanding credit card debt and so forth, but the average cost of living is ridiculous compared to that income. For example, my car is paid for, but getting old. An unexpected repair could be in the thousands. Even just getting new tires is almost $500. How does someone living on $12/hr absorb something like that? You can’t. $12/hr is NOT a “good job.”
What many people fail to realize is that $12/hour is a starting salary. Everyone needs to start somewhere and when you do not have the skills for a particular job, you tend to start at the beginning. The median income in this country is bout $45,000.00. That is what one can expect to earn mid way through their career, not to start with. There are a lot of unrealistic expectations from people regarding pay. During my undergrad in accounting, many students felt they would earn around $50,000/year just by having a degree. Even with no experience in accounting/finance. As one of the instructors put it, you earn your age. When you are 25 you make about $25,000/year, when you are 45 you make about $45,000/year and when you are 60, you will make about $60,000/year. Most of us start at the bottom and work our way up, some are lucky and fall into high pay positions to start (I have known a few of these people).
The UAW focused on higher salaries even when the number of jobs was declining, rather than protecting jobs. That’s how GM, Ford and Chrysler were able to make cars in Mexico and other low labor cost areas and import them for sale. It was unsustainable, and that is why it ultimately failed. Note that several years ago, the UAW agreed to a two tier wage system, where by new hires were only making $14/hour. Not far from $12/hour. I see that a sign the UAW realized compensation was unsustainable.
People in this country have enjoyed an inflated quality of living for many years now. A large part of that was caused by the same factors contributing to the financial mess we are in now. This inflated standard of living has allowed many things to increase unrealistically, leading to a high cost of living. $12 an hour is enough, in most places, for a person to live on without food stamps. You may not be able to get all the things you want, but you can live a simple life. And as your salary increases, so will your standard of living. Even the show ‘30 Days’ showed how a couple could survive on $5.15.hour. That is only $10.30 for two people, $12 per person would be a huge improvement.
To those who claim minimum wage should be $20 an hour if pegged to inflation, your are wrong. When I started out in 1989, minimum wage was $3.35 per hour. Pegged to an average inflation rate of 3.5% per year, that would put minimum wage at about $6.90/hour today. This is another simple example of people being unrealistic. As is the example of losing 50% to taxes. Rather than railing against perceived wrongs, perhaps we should all step back and take an objective look at the lives we and our nation have.
“New”? I’ve worked lots of different jobs, in lots of industries, in lots of parts of the country. $12-$15 an hour has long been the standard for jobs like these.
If CNN thinks this wage scale is a new paradigm in America, they are really out of touch.
Several posters have suggested that an individual earning $12/hour should expect to lose half it to federal and state income taxes. However, half the population of the US doesn’t pay any income tax at all. I think it’s safe to conclude that the folks only earning $12/hour fall squarely within that half. Thus, income tax is moot. They won’t pay any, and will keep the entire $12/hour.
As for raising a family, I think it’s pretty selfish and irresponsible of someone to try and start a family knowing they’re incapable of adequately providing for them. If you can’t afford to have kids, the solution isn’t to have them anyway and then complain loudly that you don’t make enough. The solution is to either increase your worth so you can command a higher wage, or simply don’t have kids.
I would have to say that $12/hour in any part of the country doesn’t cut it. Granted the cost of living might be cheaper in some areas than others and people situation are not all the same. Here in Vermont, we have one of the highest cost of living in the country compared to wages. I work two jobs 70 plus hours a week to pay for things like food, gas, rent/mortgage, credit card bills, student loans, medical bills, taxes, etc. This financial problem didn’t happen overnight. Like many Americans, myself & our government for that matter, have lived beyond our means for years and now it’s caught to us. Take responsibility for it. With that said, we as Americans should stop complaining about and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!! Call your overpaid Senator/Congressman and tell them about. It does no good putting posts on this website because cnn.com isn’t really gonna do anything about it… You didn’t vote CNN to be in congress. Yeah, I know getting paid a low wage sucks, but being getting involved with our government, everyone can make a difference for the better. WE REALLY DON’T HAVE IT THAT BAD COMPARED TO OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD RIGHT NOW!! BE THANKFUL THAT WE LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY!
Minimum wage indexed to inflation is supposed to be over $20/hour. So $12/hour isn’t even enough to support a family. To get the economy rolling again, workers need to earn at least family wages rather than rely on credit cards and easy credit to make up for earning less.
$12 an hour with the opportunity for advancement is a very good job for a high school graduate who isn’t interested or able to go to college. All you need to do is look around at the alternatives, in most of American they either don’t exist or they pale in comparison. Middle class America is shrinking and its shrinking fast… soon (if not already) most Americans will be working class instead of middle class. That’s what happens when you fail to invest sufficiently in education and follow free trade policies that encourage American companies to send jobs overseas.
You can survive on $12.00 per hour with careful planning as long as you never have an emergency in my area.
What I find most striking is that in the mid 80’s $10.00 per hour was a decent wage here. Fast forward 20+ years and we’re talking about $2.00 more per hour. If the price of necessities had only rose at the same rate then $12.00 would be good, but we all know that hasn’t been the case.
Amazing, as an owner/operator of a small business (convenience store) in a very rural area, my salary is 1800 a month. I am the lowest paid worker at my business, work the most hours have happy employees, the newest making 11 per hour and she’s been here 1.5 years. We have no, covered health insurance, and few perks, my average work week consists of 80 hours. In the time period of 18 years in business, I have managed personally to payoff my home, stash 6,000 per year in a ira, and with the exception of the mortgage for the business be debt free. Some might think of my equity in my business, but you try selling in this time, or any time in my location, there would not be much. My thoughts are you CAN live on 12 an hour, your life won’t involve to much other than a decent home life, and a occasional meal out. No offense is intended here, but many are overpaid for the work they do, and too too many have expected to much for the jobs they perform. My heart goes out to those whom became “trapped” by the spending game, trying to keep up with the “Jones’s” seems to have been the norm for so many years and now many are repaying for it….. I would welcome 12 per hour, even straight time for the 80 hour work week I do! BTW my employees receive merit/sale bonus’s at 1/2 year intervals, as well as many thanks for each hard days of work, from many customers and myself. Hey, your comments on this would be appreciated,
$12 an hour, I am lucky to have a job. Yes I am a college grad w/a science degree. I have been working for my current employer for 6 years and I live in the pacific northwest and could not afford to live on my own on $12 an hour.
$12 is not luxury, but considering the low cost of living areas where these jobs are located, it is ok to start (provided there are half decent benefits attached). There is no reason a single person can’t live on this wage in these areas. If you can’t afford the rent on $12 an hour, get roommates. There are people in my high cost area who make $12 and even less, and that’s what they do..and they manage to make it.
Well, I just went from making $70,000/year in a management position to yesterday wrapping up an interview for an $8-9/hr farm job now that my unemployment benefits have expired. Humbling to be competing with workers who barely speak english, but this is the america of the future. As for $12, its better than most jobs out there. Sure, you cant afford an american lifestyle on those wages…or afford even basic healthcare, a car or anything beyond food and shelter, but its enough to stay off the streets.
the US outsourced many jobs to china, india, etc over the past 20 yrs. Now that jobs are only paying $12/hr, was it a mistake from a long term health to the US economy to do the outsourcing? Who is looking at the big picture interest to ensure health of US jobs/economy – Fed, Treasury, CEO of Private Companies?
Sarah,
Pull the head out silly. I did not state that making $12/hour would put you in a 50% tax bracket. When you analyze the amount of taxes that you eventually pay per dollar of income, you will pay almost 50% in taxes. Add them up dear, Fed + state + local + sales + property (you pay property even if you rent) + etc…get the drift. I also should have included “FEES” in the 50%. Even though they are not technically “taxes”, they do tax the income of the person paying.
$12/hour, regardless of where you are, is poverty level IMHO. With the cost of everything going up, $12/hour won’t even come close to a living wage for a single person – skilled or unskilled.
The USA is rapidly becoming a 3rd world country.
I joined the work force as a steel worker in the mid 60’s at $2.48/hr. Good labor jobs paid less than $4.00/hr. Gas could be bought for .25/gal and a new car for less than $2,500.00. I would have been a fat cat then at $12.00/hr. Today, I would have to make $25 to $40 / hr to enjoy the same buying power and fat cat status would cost the boss $120/hr. It doesn’t matter how much you are paid unless it’s less than everyone else. We all have to compete for the same goods and services. Life is good only if you are competitive.
When a business pays less than a living wage it is being subsidized by someone else, whether its mom and dad, the taxpayers or charity.
The auto industry was able to pay high wages because it invested in manufacturing processes and equipment that made those workers highly productive. They made those investments, in part, because the high wages justified high levels of capital investment.
$12 per hour is not a decent wage. The solution to that is to raise the minimum wage to a level that will at least pay the living costs of an individual.
Businesses that can figure out how to make money paying those wages will succeed and those that can’t will fail. That’s the way capitalism is supposed to work.
Go to college and make more than 12/hr. 28/hr is ridiculous, no wonder GM is in so much trouble. Get rid of all the unions and pay a high school graduate what they deserve.
It’s a great job for someone in Mexico or India.
America, welcome to globilization.
If American consumers continue to select cheap (and sometimes dangerous) goods from other countries, then American consumers shouldn’t be surprised when American companies are forced to pay lower wages to globally compete.
The old adage, “You get what you pay for,” is apparently true on at least a couple of levels.
Frugal Pete is not far off; there is more to taxation than just fed & fica. Don’t forget state tax, sales tax, property tax if you own a home, etc. Most transactions are taxed at some point.
Even if we accept Sarah’s assertion that $24k -> $18k, it still isn’t a living wage–
A very mediocre apt in our area: at least $9000/yr;
Food at least $2000,
Car payment & insurance at least $2000,
Gas (15k miles @20 mpg @ $3/gal), $2000,
Heat/elec/water/phone at least $1000;
So we’re at $16k already, and that’s assuming health insurance is covered completely! (unlikely) We haven’t even started talking about all of the other plethora of expenses that always crop up, or even a simple luxury like a Christmas present for the kids.
The media SUCKS!
$12 an hour? What a joke! I live in Reno, NV—home of the $8 an hour job, with housing prices of $400,000 for a decent home, $2.75 a gallon for gas, $2.22 a gallon for milk, etc. On $8-12 an hour, I “love” all the commentary on how the economy shows signs of improving, etc. BS! IT, the economy, will NEVER improve again if employers continue to pay non-living wages and high cost of living, along with state, federal, and city a-holes that continue raise taxes!
Get over it Bernanke and other rich people wondering why the economy is in such bad shape. Answer? LOW WAGES!
67% of the entire National GNP is made up from consumer spending. Keep paying people less than $60,000 a year (what it takes to just pay your bills with a family anymore) and we’ll continue in a recession with media and government MORONS wondering why they aren’t getting richer!
$12 an hour is a good wage for unskilled labor. These are good a kid coming straight out of high school can do. Just look at GM to see what happens when you over pay your unskilled workers. Compare these wages to say a nurse who is specialized and gone throught 4 years of school they made mid-twenty starting which was less than GM paid its unskilled workers at $28/hr. It made no sense.
The sad state GM finds itself in is ENTIRELY the fault of the UAW, –Not the workers— but the UAW. And now this clown Mike Hanley says he hopes green manufacturing jobs will become more unionized going forward ? You’re joking right ?
I hope if this guy has the gall to approach them to organize that they run like hell. Better yet –offer Mr Hanley a job along side of them. So he can earn a living right along with the workers who supported him as he dragged them down.
To be honest- I’m kind of irked that Money listed this on their front page today. Anything that pays $12 an hour was never a good job- even when I was back in college- and that was over 15 years ago!!
But does that mean we should now go and raise wages for everybody across the board??
ABSOLOUTELY NOT!!
In fact, I always get quietly irritated whenever Congress passes a minimum wage increase.
…Almost immediately afterwards, the very first thing to happen is that the price of everything else goes up- and in particular, the price of things we all need to buy, like fuel and food.
Reason being, the places where we go to buy these things are paying roughly minimum wage, and are then forced to either up the cost of what they sell to cover the new expense, or to take less as a profit (and who’s going to take less as a profit?).
…But hey- *somebody* has to clean the toilets, and scrub the floors, and deliver the pizza, and stock the shelves.
And God bless them all for doing it!! Without them, what would this nation be?? They are the foundation upon which we stand.
Because- as long as there is a need to have all this done, there will be *somebody* who will agree to do it.
For- as soon as everyone stops agreeing to do it will be the moment when wages either go up as an incentive for this work, or production and consumption stops alltogether. (Which will be never.)
But to lament the loss here of a pathway to the middle-class I think is still horribly inaccurate.
Again- the middle class will always, be there, as will the rich and the poor.
What will get you there- what has always gotten us there- from poverty to wealth- is brains and gumption.
What will get you there (especially in a new, green economy) is desire, and seizing opportunity, not a job at an arcane auto plant or a steel mill.
Let GM go to hell for all I care.
They were in bed with foreign oil the whole time. They killed the electric car, and now, in kind- the people have spoken!!
Innovation, and reducing our dependence on pollution-and-politic-filled foreign oil is what will get us there, and now we just need to suck it up, and grock it.
$12/hr is certainly an appropriate wage for unskilled labor. Whether it’s a decent wage depends on where it’s located.
Jobs for unskilled labor do not require a skill set that differs significantly from the skill set required to build a Big Mac. It was a failure of both management and union leaders to ever have pretended they were worth more than that.
The auto industry killed the rest of the midwest manufacturing industry years ago by overpricing unskilled labor when they had no competition. Unfortunatley the wrenching changes we’re seeing now are affecting a different generation of people than the ones that screwed it up to start with.
Good? Of course it’s not good. But that’s just the market telling you that it already has enough people doing that job, and that you should go do something that there is a greater need for. It’s just basic supply and demand, people.
A single person could barely live on $12 an hour. A family certainly could not. I live in Dallas, where the cost of living is not too bad and $12 an hour would make life a struggle. The fact that people are having to accept this “slave” wage and be grateful is very sad. This country is going down the drain and no one seems to be able to stop it.
“$12 an hour! What a joke. So all these people earning $12 an hour will also have to sign up for food stamps, Medicaid, and stand in line for a room in the homeless shelters!”
Someone making $12/ hour wouldn’t qualify for food stamps or Medicaid. And in the Midwest, there is housing within that price range.
Let’s make it real clear here people. This has nothing to do with education. This only has to do with what it is that the worker is doing! How do you feel about a pro baseball player who went straight from high school to the pros and makes millions a year? His pay is not based on his education but his ability to do a job (and the fact that he was extremely lucky). Auto workers earned their wages based on how much the company was able to sell its cars for, that’s how they were able to make a good lower middle class income. Trust me, $50,000 a year is NOT a lot of money!
This issue is based on how those in power can twist the system to decrease labor costs while NOT decreasing the price of their goods. There is plenty of proof, Nike did not go to China for production to reduce its prices, it went to increase its profits. And, in the doing laid off hundreds, if not thousands, so that Phil Knight could get richer faster.
No, $12 an hour is not a good wage. No, it would not be a burden for US corporations to pay more. It would just mean that the CEOs and shareholders wouldn’t make quite as much money quite as fast.
FrugalPete,
Making $12/ hour isn’t going to put someone in a 50% tax bracket. They’d bring home about $18k, which is totally doable.
If you live in an area of the country that considers $25,000 a year to be a poverty level wage, you need to MOVE. The cost of living is much too high in your area.
$12/hr is terrible. You cannot afford to feed, clothe and house a single person on $12/hr. I challenge anyone who says it is doable to show everyone how it’s done.
This is just another slash at working class people in America by corporations. I don’t see management wages falling as rapidly as hourly worker pay is.
In that part of the country $12 hourly is acceptable for someone with only a high school diploma. However, if gas prices continue to increase and it looks like it will, along with inflation, then things can get alittle tight.
Yes, this is a good starting wage for people with no motivation to obtain a college degree. It’s about time we stop with the handouts. If you want to be paid like a professional get an education and earn your way!
To me, it sounds like a good starting wage, considering the geographical areas where this is occurring. For someone to have been making $60k-$80k,
with in some cases not even a high school diploma, coupled with the fact that rents and housing are particularly low in these areas right now…why not? BOTH bad management, and overpaid employees brought the downfall. I do agree however, that this “free-trade” talk is BS; the rich
here get richer, whilst everyone else is robbed of any real economic opportunity…..
Good?! It’s pathetic. We have successfully undone all the progress this country had made over the last 120 years. Congratulations “free” traders, you have won, we are now a 2nd world country. We will soon be moving into an economy like most of Central and South America. We will have rich people and all the rest who make them rich people.
I’m so looking forward to the next couple decades as we try to claw our way out of the crappy system created by all the Reaganomics people who claim that things like tariffs, which the rest of the world continues to use, are a bad thing! Really? Tariffs served this country very well from the founding in 1776 to about 1980, building this country into an absolute giant of industrialism. Now we are a dried up has-been, hanging on by a thin thread to a few remaining industries. Not because we CAN’T compete but because we are playing a very lopsided game.
$12 an hour! What a joke. So all these people earning $12 an hour will also have to sign up for food stamps, Medicaid, and stand in line for a room in the homeless shelters! We’re on our way to being able to compete with the rest of the 2nd world countries now, who’s populace works for peanuts while the ring masters get 7 figure “pay checks”.
Yeah, sure 12 bucks an hour is great if you don’t mind being in the poorhouse. that’s about 25k a year, but no worry, America is no longer the land of opportunity unless you’re owner of the company that pays his employees 12 bucks an hour. Hell, let’s just make it minimum wage, people don’t need to survive comfortably, save the wealth for the rich who never have enough.
Well let’s see, $12.00/hour isn’r great but it’s not bad. But let’s not forget, taxes take about half so you’re down to $6.00/hour. Full time work is 2000 hours a year x 6 = 12,000.00 annual salary. That’s poverty. You can’t live or support a family on $6.00 an hour, so $12/hour SUCKS, unless of course, the price of EVERYTHING comes down in line with wages (keep dreaming).
The US is devolving into a 3rd world country. Won’t it be ironic when foreign nations start coming here to have THEIR crap manufactured in the USA because our labor rates will be lower than theirs.
The US is bankrupt and the pain will be felt for a long long time. Our kids kids will be the ones to truly suffer for all the sins of their predecessors. We are NOT leaving our future generations in a better position that what we started with. This is a truly sad state of affairs.
It really depends on what part of the country you live in. I have lived in areas where the cost of living was significantly lower than it is here in the DC metro area, and in those areas $12/hour with benefits would be a decent starting wage. Here in the DC metro area that wage would need to be at least $24/hour for the same standard of living.
This is all part of the plan to make the U.S. compete in a global economy. I am actually surprised the new going wage is $12 and not closer to $7.
An interesting statistic, if one could find it would be the % of Americans making less monet know than last year. I would bet it is greater than 50%.
$12 an hour would be a good wage IF medical insurance were covered for the worker’s family. Hence the need for socialized medicine. Other countries have such, thus companies can pay less.
For a high school graduate with no student loans $12 an hour is a reasonable starting wage. If the company includes decent benefits and wage and job progression than it is totally reasonable to be able to make a career in that field. The only reason this is even a question is that $12 and hour doesn’t compare to the bloated and wasteful salaries that were paid to former auto workers, former being the key word.
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I am currently living on $12.00/hour with $63,000 invested in BMO Monthly Income where my mutual funds give me $468.00/month in dividends. What people should do is buy conservative fixed dividend paying income funds with 50% bonds and 50% stocks so that one can rely more and more on the dividends so that they are not relying more on the wage.