In 2025, the federal minimum wage is officially a “poverty wage.” The annual earnings of a single adult working full-time, year-round at $7.25 an hour now fall below the poverty threshold of $15,650 (established by the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines). The limitations of how the federal government calculates poverty understate how far the minimum wage is from economic security for workers and their families.
Where does that threshold come from though? Like is it adjusted accordingly with inflation or is it just a made up number from 1993?
Because seeing the effects of the tariffs this number should’ve doubled in the past months.
Better cut the top tax bracket and corp taxes some more
Raising minimum wage and housing would be an easy political platform to stand on but, of course, politicians are beholden to the rich.
The federal poverty standard is horribly low. Like you’re still on the brink of homeless at twice that wage.
I always liked the definition of financially stable to be at a state where you can weather two major life events at the same time and not be devastating. Replace a vehicle and pay your max out of pocket for health insurance at the same time.
What we find is that so many of us are one bad day away from doom.
It’s like 70% or something of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. It’s crazy, but we all keep voting in the same group of assholes who haven’t changed a thing in decades. So frustrating.
Edit: The first site I saw (I have no idea if it’s credible or not) says “seventy-seven percent of workers in America would experience financial difficulty if their paycheck were delayed a week” - source
What’s even more disturbing is when you think of how much savings would be needed to weather the storm. If your car is totalled and you had to find something, one of the adult loses their job and you have to cover a month or three of life. We are talking tens of thousands of dollars.
But maybe even worse is how quickly that can be replaced. If shit hits the fan and you survived, how long are you vulnerable? Two years? A decade of saving?
When you look at the top 10% of society there just aren’t that many problems that could cause them to be homeless in 24hrs.
It’s great because a lot of people don’t realize there’s a sub minimum wage as well ☺️.
30$ in tips per month is all it takes to allow the sub minimum wage to be paid in a bunch of states.
The sub minimum wage is 2 dollars. Yup. 2 dollars an hour.
Trump disbands DHHS
No more poverty!
