The Minimum Wage Is Grossly Inadequate

The following is part of an article written by Theresa Riley and Charina Nadura on the blog Moyers and Company. It's an excellent article, and the whole thing is well worth reading, but this part clearly illustrates just how inadequate the minimum wage in the United States has become.

Starting next year, more than half the states will mandate higher minimum wages than the federal standard.

And as much of a victory as that might sound like for low-wage workers and their advocates, it’s still not enough. In every state in the union, even those that mandate a minimum wage high above the federal mark, such as Washington state, where it’s currently $9.32 (rising to $9.47 in 2015), it’s still not enough to pay the rent. Earlier this year, the National Low Income Housing Coalition released this map (see above), showing the number of hours a low-income earner would need to work per week in order to afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment without paying more than 30 percent of their income.

According to NLIHC’s report released earlier this year, Out of Reach 2014, “a minimum wage worker today has to work, on average, 104 hours a week to afford a modest two-bedroom rental unit.” Many advocates talk about a “living wage” when they talk about $15 an hour, as some fast-food workers have been striking for recently. But according to the NLIHC report, a full-time minimum wage worker can’t afford a one- or two-bedroom rental unit in any US state.

The hourly wage that we’d have to hit in order make the rent on a 40-hour work week? $18.92 an hour.