This country is said to have been founded on the tenements that any man (not women at the time) could come from nothing and make something of himself. We call it the American dream, but is it really possible for the average American? 

In 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Fair Labor Standards Act as a way to protect the rights of citizens. The US Department of Labor website notes that the act continues to establish “minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards.” The last  time the minimum wage was raised was to $7.25 an hour in 2009.

Money runs America and ultimately the world. We need money for food, water, and shelter. We need time for sleep. There are those who argue that raising the minimum wage is bad for the American economy and I understand there are business components that I, as a high school student who has never run a business, will not understand, but I believe that raising the minimum wage is good for people and therefore good for business. 

I’m going to use myself as an example, because I’m a minimum wage worker. I’ve made $761.27 over the past month. Before taxes, my paycheck for this pay period (which is two weeks long) was $464.96. After taxes, my paycheck was $388.09. Since I make $7.25 per hour, I worked about 64.13 hours. I am lucky enough to not be working to support my family or myself, so most of my paycheck goes to savings or things that are not needed, but most Americans working for minimum wage are not that lucky. 

Pretend I’m not a sixteen year old still living at home, but an 18 year old living on my own. 

I need a house, or a one bedroom apartment rather because that’s the cheapest option. Upon Googling “rent for one bedroom apartment Virginia Beach,” a link to www.apartments.com came up. I changed the settings to show me rent shown lowest to highest on one bedroom apartments. The least expensive place is $695 a month. To apply for this apartment there is a $28 application fee and the security deposit is $200 dollars. I got paid $761.27 last month. If you add up the application fee + one month’s rent + deposit it equals $923. That’s $162 more than I make in a month.

How would I have a place to stay? I would have to work more than full time and/or find another job to try to support myself. I would need a job that allows me to work at nights since during the day I have my other job. The best solution would be working at a bar or restaurant. 

My day shifts at my current job are from either 9-2 or 11-4 depending on the day or the availability of other employees. There’s a bar near where I work, let’s say I work there. There’s 168 hours in a week, I work 32 hours a week during the day currently but at max I could work around 35 give or take. So now I have 133 hours in the rest of the week to work at the bar. If my shift starts at four or six pm and ends at two am, that’s about seven-nine hours a night. If I did that every night of the week I’d have 49-53 hours. Between working the two jobs, I’d be working 84-88 hours a week. There’s 168 hours in a week total.

Below is a graphic representation of what my week would look like:

An 88 hour work week at $7.25 would give you $638 per week. But even if I worked these 88 hours, I would not be making that. As of now, waitresses make $2.13 an hour at federal minimum wage. Because “tips are supposed to make ends meet.” So, my 88 hour work week would go from making $638 a week to only making a guaranteed $187.44 per week before tips. 

If I got paid twice a month, my monthly income for this work schedule would be around $374.88  before taxes. Assuming I make $300 a month in tips and get taxed at 12% ($80.99-this includes salary and tips), I would stand to make $593.89 (in a month). This falls short of about  $101.11  to pay for rent for the cheapest place possible in Virginia Beach. I would need much more money to cover car insurance so I could get to my jobs, gas, health insurance, and so on. There likely would be no money left for food.  

This short example shows how difficult it would be to live on minimum wage.

Want to see more about what it is like to try to survive on minimum wage? Check out Surviving On Peanut Butter & Crackers and this PBS special on Life on Minimum Wage. It is also worth checking out What the US gets wrong about minimum wage.

Do you have an opinion on this topic? Leave a comment below to be part of the conversation.