What amount of money is a “livable wage”?

Walkywalkerson

No one ever has 'enough' money
It's human nature to want more.
More security, more stuff, more freedom etc ..
Livable wages like everyone has said on this thread depends on how you live and where you live.
I'm in the UK in a city near London so it's pretty pricey.
Rent prices are extortionate and to get on the property ladder requires a lot of cash and isn't accessible to a lot of people.
I'd say I need around £2000 a month minimum if I want to live an OK existence without being extravagant or have anything spare to save.
In the UK we're lucky to have the NHS which cuts out the expense of health insurance.
But taxes / NI insurances are high and there are other mandatory expenses that add up.

cwolfman13

nooshi713 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

bellababy9031 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

bellababy9031 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

bellababy9031 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

bellababy9031 wrote: »

Those families without internet lived. They may not have thrived, but they lived. I am not trying to be argumentative, really I am not. I just wish people would step back and realize that MOST of the stuff we think we need to live, we really do not. People are so conditioned to think that they NEED so much...they feel that they are entitled to certain things because they were born. They are not. You are entitled to what you decide to go out and work for and make happen for yourself.

Sometimes people need help, and that is fine. Food, Clothing, Shelter, Medical care. I got that. But people don't need free government phones, internet, television, prime rib, alcohol or cigarettes. Those things, people need to earn and pay for on their own, by their own hard work.

Happiness on earth ain't just for high achievers. There are plenty of people who have very little and yet are living productive, happy lives.

Dude...we're talking about people making a livable wage and not having to decide whether to pay their rent or pay their utilities or pay for food or pay for rent or pay for clothes for their children or pay for food. We're not talking about people wanting prime rib and *kitten*. We're not talking about government assistance either...we're talking about an earned wage to live. Literally the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hr and hasn't changed in 12 years. You really think $7.25/hr is a livable wage for a family in the US? A single person can barley survive on that in the US.

And the whole comparison to families in Haiti is ludicrous. They live in squallier...that's not livable, that's mere survival.

Not sure if 7.25 is livable or not, but I can say this. I took business and economics in school, and I KNOW that if you raise the minimum wage, the price of goods and services automatically goes up, so where are you then? In exactly the same place. You can't just print money and expect prices to stay the same.

So many businesses around here raised their minimum starting pay, then prices went through the roof. Then they laid off workers and put in automatic checkouts. Grocery stores for example...used to be 8-10 registers open with cashiers making minimum wage. Now they make 12.50 an hour, but there are only 1 or two, and 8-12 self checkouts. So, those 1-2 cashiers make more, but what about the 8 that got laid off because the store could not afford to hire them?

I don't know what the answer is, but just raising minimum wage is not it. It has never worked in any society, and its not going to work today.

Weird, because it's worked ever since the minimum wage was instituted. I'm sure Bezos could pay better and not raise prices on goods and still be a billionaire a billion times over.

We've had local businesses here raise their wages and there hasn't been any price increase. It's actually benefited them because they're actually able to attract workers and retain them. Cycling through employees is far more costly than paying a good wage and retaining employees; I'm surprised they didn't teach you that in your classes. I'm a business finance major and have worked in accounting and finance for 17 years and increasing wages doesn't automatically increase prices.

So where does the extra money come from?

Sure, Bezos could do it, but what about Doc down the street at the Quick Stop? What about most small business owners who are still just barely living (as we define living here). If I have a good employee, and I want to raise his wages $2.00 an hour, or 80.00 a week, I have to raise prices enough to cover that 80.00 to make ends meet. If I have 10 employees, that is 800 a week. It does not fall out of the sky.

That is why every single thing I buy costs significantly more now than it did two years ago, and why I do not buy a lot of the things I used to buy. That loss of my business, times however other people are in the same boat, then cause the retailers to again raise prices to cover the increased wages, and then I will adjust my spending again.

You're seriously blaming inflation on minimum wage increases? Seriously? Wow...

Many of these companies that pay minimum wage are huge, multinational companies that keep making record profits year after year after year and there is nothing in place to incentivize them to invest in their employees and pay higher wages. This is why they're having a problem hiring and there are help wanted signs everywhere from McDonalds to Wal-Mart to anywhere else that pays *kitten* wages. Ultimately not having productive employees hurts the bottom line.

As for mom and pops...like I said, we've had several around here that have increased wages and not increased prices. They are experiencing cost savings from not having to deal with high turnover and they turn out more product because they can actually stay fully staffed to meet the actual demand of customers. When business can't meet demand because they can't maintain staffing levels because they don't pay their employees, that hurts the bottom line because customers will go elsewhere.

I am addressing the last, bolded part of the above statement.

I have a business that I own. I have 8 full time hourly employees, and 15 part time hourly employees. Most of my employees are long term employees who are good workers and seem happy. No issues to speak of. After a fairly good year last year, my net profit after all expenses was between 95,000 and 100,000 dollars.

So if I take my hours from last year:
8 x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 16640 hours
15 x 15 (low estimate) hours x 52 weeks = 11,700 hours
Total hours for year = 28,340 hours

Average part time hours is probably closer to 20 per week, but I am being conservative.

So, if I increase my hourly wage by say....$3.00 an hour, that is an additional $85,020 dollars in payroll expenses for the year, not to mention additional social security and medicare taxes. At that point, I am not even breaking even. How do I do this and keep my business open and employees working without drastically raising my prices?

This is not a troll question....I really want to know.

I have no idea how much you pay your employees or if it's livable? That is the topic, not "everyone needs to increase wages across the board?

If full time workers need government assistance for the basics, the wage isn't livable and you are essentially being subsidized by taxpayers for paying low wages.

In some cities, you can barely get a 1 bedroom apartment in a safe area for $2000 and in some it is higher (San Francisco, New York, LA). In these same cities gas is high too. Most business owners wouldn’t be able to afford to pay low skill workers like a fast food worker or cashier a “liveable wage” in these places. It is not that their business model sucks, just that in some places the cost of living is very high. I’m not sure what the solution is in these places.

I think fast food is going to become more and more automated and will employ fewer people in the near future. Kiosk and app orders, etc. Already seeing a lot of that with cashiering and self check out. The grocery store I usually go to usually only has one or two actual cashiers and the rest is self check out. Costco here has also recently added a large self checkout. Basically, at some point most of those jobs are going to be all but obsolete.