When I graduated from college in 1984, I went to work making $16.000 a year and paying $190 per month for a nice 2 BR 2B townhouse apartment. Even those making the then $2.90 minimum wage (about $5,800 per year) could have afforded my apartment. (Has that really been almost 40 years!)
In NC the current minimum wage is $7.25. A full-time minimum wage worker makes about $15,000 per year. One month's rent in NC ranges from $800 to $2400, depending on location, size, and condition. If all their earnings go for rent, how will they pay for food, a car to get to work, gas, insurance, electricity, water, phone, Wi-Fi, work clothes, shoes, childcare . . . When they have to choose between the electric bill and an oil change, how long before their car will stop running . . .
Do you know how hard it can be now to get a full-time job with benefits? Businesses have been moving to part-time positions to avoid having to pay benefits and are often farming out some positions to be filled by contractors or temp agencies.
Do you know what corporate CEOs are making per year? Many of them millions. Some of them billions. One billion is one million times 1000. Every year.
"I did it myself. You should be able to do it yourself." no longer works. The system is broken from the top. 1984 is not here.
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