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Monday, Aug. 3, 2009 | 2 a.m.
The map shows the percentage of monthly income a minimum-wage earner in each county would spend on housing, based on the HUD-determined fair market rent of a two-bedroom dwelling and the minimum wage in each state, which ranges from the $7.25 per hour federal minimum to $8.55 per hour in Washington. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 2.2 million of the 75 million hourly workers in the U.S. earn minimum wage and that roughly one in six U.S. workers are employed part time.
GET A ROOMMATE!
Live some where cheaper. Don't always need to rent the most expensive place you can find.
typical ignorant comments above. "live some where cheaper" it's so easy to pick up a whole family and move during these times, money for the move, place to stay, new job to find NEXT
"get a roommate" who, where, are they on drugs, Do they have a job, are they a molester?'NEXT
When I moved to LV ten years ago I paid $500 for a two bedroom, today the rent is $850
when I live in boston the rent was $500 for a two bedroom today $1100
when I lived in Cali the rent was $500 for a two bedroom today $1200
wages in America whether minimum wage or not have not kept up with expenses
In the '70s people earned $40,000, one parent could have a job and afford to raise five kids
today if both parent's salaries are $40,000 each they can barely afford the rent and bills and there is no money left over for savings
every quarter NV Energy is asking for a rate hike
owners of rental property kept raising rents because of the "housing boom" not because of expenses
greed and apathy has caused america's downturn
You're all missing the point when you talk about appreciation. You need to look at buying a house for $100k as opposed to putting $100k in a CD at the bank. At the bank you get maybe 3% tops, for a 3-yr commitment.
Putting it cash into a house, even if rent falls to $850, means, even with taxes and upkeep, an earning of approx 9% off other people's money. That $850/month is pure profit. Over $10k a year. You can't get that on Wall Street or a CD.
Wakeup! is right, minimum wage typically hasn't kept up with expenses. That is why poor people, unskilled people or unlucky people should not have big families. Unfortunately it seems that the poor, unskilled and unlucky people tend to reproduce like rabbits. There may be an answer - children should not be tax deductible. On the contrary, each additional one should be taxed at a higher rate.
catholics?
Speculation, and poor regulatory enforcement of the mortgage industry, drove up prices in LV to ridiculous levels. Now they're correcting. When they finally settle, housing here should be noticeably more affordable, as eventually demand will drive the market (look at Detroit's housing market if you want to see the affect a truly depressed local economy has on housing prices -- hopefully we don't follow their path, with the same disasterous results). Painful, but there really isn't a viable alternative -- the pols in DC & CC mis-managed it so badly (and continue to do so) that it will be years before any rebound is obvious to the guy on the street just looking for a job.
hey JSpence07, the way things are now in Las Vegas, minimum wage or not, if you are a family of four, your son delivers newspapers, your daughter walks the neighborhood dogs, your wife has three part time jobs, and your dog works for Metro, just to add enough to your wages that you can continue to buy toyhaulers and jetskis and boats like the rest of the knuckleheads on your block. LMAO at the stupidity of it all...
It never ceases to amaze me how cold people are. Every time there is an article about the struggles of the working class, the few knuckle heads that still have money start their rhetoric.
You are part of the problem. Do you laugh at the homeless guy with the sign in his hand? Or do you avoid eye contact like most middle class pricks? God forbid you ever know that pain and shame.
I hope you never know the pain of selling every item that you worked hard for just to barely pay the rent once more. Just to have a couple boxes of ramen in the pantry so your kids don't starve.How about the look in your child's eyes when he says Daddy I'm hungry and you have no food. Or the pain of deciding what to do with your family dog that you love like a child.
Maybe instead of debating fiscal policy that you can't change (and don't understand), you can show some compassion for the millions of children who are sleeping on the streets tonight
even at $15.00 per hour, you really can't live.
the minimum wage should be based on an index, not just some base number.
it should vary from county to county.
people that put in an honest 40 hour week SHOULD be able to at least afford a safe place to live.
it should be the average rent price in that county x 2 and then divided by 160 ( 40 hours x 4 weeks per month ).
that would allow people to have a safe place to live, have healthy food, and have a little money to put back into the economy.
i'm a conservative, but this one "liberal" issue that i do support.
Got to love some people's ignorance. I think I like best the comment by adviceischeap that people making minimum wage shouldn't have children. Really? Are you serious? My daughter and son in law have 2 kids. They had them while he was in the Navy - not a minimum wage occupation. When he got out of the Navy they moved to Texas where he had been promised a job was being held for him. When they got there- no job, they had given it to someone else. For the next year they struggled with temp and minimum wage jobs. Are you suggesting because they no longer made enough to cover expenses that they should have given their children up at that point??
My son 23, has no children is single and works 2 minimum wage jobs. He can't afford a place of his own in Missouri and rents a room from a friend. He wants to go to college and is struggling to save money to go. He drives an old Ford Fiesta, doesn't have a credit card and is very careful with his money.
Not everyone making minimum wage has always made minimum wage, nor is everyone making minimum wage just "ignorant". Sometimes loss of jobs or other events beyond a person's control place them in less then desirable jobs. Some people work minimum wage jobs because they are unable to afford schooling or training that would allow them to get a better paying job. Unless you have walked in the other person's shoes you dont' know how or why they got where they are in life.