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When you figure the basics, the math tracks.
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$7.50/hr is $60/day is $1200/mo, before taxes are taken out. So $1200 is by no means take home pay. Where do you imagine rent or a mortgage acquired today tracks at 50% of that? Then there’s all the things you need to work: clothes, transportation, electricity and running water, a phone, soaps, shoes, food to fuel you for that job.
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$15/hr is $120/day is $2400/mo before taxes. Maybe in the Midwest or the crappier parts of the south you can live solo. Again though, you’re looking at beans and rice. Maybe some leg meat chicken and eggs if you think you can splurge that week.
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Bank of America released this, this month: https://institute.bankofamerica.com/economic-insights/paycheck-to-paycheck-lower-income-households.html
Their estimate is 1/4 of families live paycheck to paycheck. It reaches as high as $150k/yr. The $150k is probably someone with a mortgage. Cost of DIY materials, tools, and any tradesman work has doubled and on some cases tripled. Example: I put a storm door in a house for $250, with installation, in 2019. In 2021 that same door without installation, me figuring it out, is $350 off the shelf. You used to be able to get a tradesman out and actually be billed $350, $400, $250, and so on. Now, your licensed tradesmen often have $1k a day minimums just to show up. Home ownership can now break you instead of save you. Home ownership is not what it was pre 2020.
What’s unique here is as a bank they can parse out necessity from want shopping.
There’s a lot on Google dates after 10/22/24 on paycheck to paycheck, but much of it appears to be scraping this document to write redundant articles.
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Forbes has this, written before the BoA article: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/
A lot of this is survey responses and savings capacity. So not unique.
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Here’s a winning essay from Ursinus College arguing for raising the minimum wage. Lots of citations, do your own research to chase down those citations: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/ethics_essay/23/
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Mostly, just talk to people. Insurances are insane lately. That alone has added ~$950/mo to my necessities and I have a good driving record, not a single medical diagnosis, bundle discount, no kids on health insurance, and I haven’t claimed anything on the homeowners, ever, in 20 yrs. And yet.