Who here thinks $6.75 is a livable wage?

[lonestarnot]

But it's a start!

Yes On Prop 202 Campaign Launches Statewide Raise It! Tour Friday
The
Yes On Prop 202 campaign kicks off a statewide bus tour Friday,
October 6, with rallies in Tempe and Downtown Phoenix. Elected
officials, community leaders, and supporters will gather at two
locations with the Raise It! Yes on Prop 202 Bus to rally support
for
the statewide ballot initiative that will raise the minimum wage in
Arizona to $6.75 per hour.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. It's not. And since the state won't do it cities should.

Tucson and/or Phoenix should get an initiative going. Maybe Chandler or one of the smaller cities.

[jillan]

2. It's sad - isn't it!

But better than 5.15

[Greyhound]

3. I'm in favor of an actual living wage as minimum, this is just another

BS distraction, so we can pretend to care. Every traditional "minimum wage job" here is starting at over $7 (& that's only the corporate owned places like Carl's Jr.), most are at $9 or more.

Even if this passes it will no effect in improving anybody's life.

[bluedogyellowdog]

4. 6.75 isn't even close

In Arizona, a livable wage for a single person renting a studio apartment is about $8.50 an hour.

Anything less than $8.50 and said person will find themselves going deeper into debt each month even if they spend money on nothing but necessities (food, rent, commuting to and from work).

Anything more than one single person in the family and the livable wage goes up.
Want to buy a house instead of rent? The livable wage goes way up.
$8.50 is a bare minimum assuming a single person, renting, no kids.

$6.75 *might* be a livable wage in peculiar situations such as:
4 twentysomethings sharing the same house,
Somebody living in Kingman or Winslow who already owns a house and has it paid off, meaning that rent or mortgage payments are not a concern,
or a couple, with no kids, no intention of having any kids, both working, and renting a tiny one bedroom.

Change the situation from Arizona to, say, the Washington D.C., Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Jackson Hole, Santa Fe, Santa Cruz, etc. areas and the livable wage for a single person renting a studio apartment goes up. Way up. To about $19.00 an hour.

Compare all this to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. (Pre-Reaganomics). Back then a married couple with two kids could buy a house with only the husband working at an entry level manufacturing job. Union wages and benefits meant job security and a middle class lifestyle. Keep in mind the minimum wage back then was over $8.00 an hour adjusted for inflation in today's dollars. New homes cost maybe $15,000 - meaning that while wages have not risen fast enough to keep up with inflation, home prices have outpaced inflation. Health care was cheap and affordable to the point that medical insurance wasn't even a necessity - doctors bills and prescription drugs cost about as much back then as, say, going out to eat. New car? $2500. Gas? 29 cents a gallon.

$6.75 is too little, too late. It isn't a livable wage in Arizona, and it sure as hell isn't a livable wage in California or northern Virginia. It isn't even a livable wage in North Dakota or West Virginia.

The question is how did we get into this mess? And what are we going to do about it?