Can’t Live Off of the Minimum Wage

I hear it from just about everyone I know that you can’t survive off of minimum wage. In 1990, I was 21 years old and in the Marine Corps, but for the purpose of this post, I will say that I stayed flipping burgers like I was before I joined the Corps. So here I am, flipping burgers for minimum wage, which was $3.35 (source), which makes a paycheck of 40 hours around $134 (taking taxes out of the equation for now). If I worked 40 hours a week, I was bringing in $536 a month. I need to fill the tank of my Mustang, and I would have paid around $.90 a gallon, so for easy math, we will say that I paid $1 a gallon so it took $13 to fill my tank, which lasted me a week ($52 a month) (source). Let’s say that I live alone and rent is $447 a month for my one-bedroom apartment (source). Not calculating anything but my rent and my gas for my car so I can go to work, make money for the apartment, and fill my tank (wait, this is a vicious circle), I spend $500 a month alone on rent and fuel.

Fast forward to 2020, and the minimum wage is $8.65/hr ($346 a week or $1,384 a month), the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,104 and the average cost of gas is $2.40 a gallon ($31 a tank or $125 a month on average). This translates that nearly my entire paycheck is going to pay for my apartment and gas.

Today’s youth are complaining that you can’t survive off of the current minimum wage, and they are correct, but you couldn’t survive off of it in 1990 either. It is the minimum wage, it is not intended to allow you to get a luxury apartment, drive a current model year car, and wear Gucci. If you want all those things, then you need to climb the ladder and either get a better position or a new job, one that pays better. There is a direct correlation between the quality of customer service and the amount the employee is being paid.

I started off when I was 14 at a local mom-and-pop restaurant, working the drive-thru window and washing dishes. I then left that job and went to wash dishes at a very popular local restaurant. I worked my way out of the dish room, to making bread, to the salad pantry, then to being a prep cook, then a line cook. I ultimately landed the brunch prep cook and omelet cook for the Sunday brunch. The brunch was extremely popular and every baked good for it was handmade by me on Sunday, I would be making omelets to order. Then I left that job to join the Marine Corps. I kept climbing that ladder and I still do today.

The higher on the ladder I climbed the more I could afford, and that meant that I could purchase better quality as well. I think part of the problem is that a majority of today’s youth do not want to work for things, they expect handouts.

So, no, you can’t survive off minimum wage, you never could. If you want a nice apartment, then get a roommate, if you want a nice car, then you will have to cut back somewhere. If you want Gucci, then I hope you don’t mind wearing knock-offs.