My assumption is that everyone knows what a living wage is, to them, but I’m also guessing that one person’s living wage is not the same as another person’s living wage.
Is it $15/hour? At 2000 hours a year, that’s $30,000 per year, or $2500 per month, before taxes.
Where I live, a studio apartment is $1,200 per month, before utilities, and that doesn’t leave much left over for phone and transportation and other necessities. I don’t think that’s sustainable.
But my nephew rents a room in a house with his buddies from college and only pays $500 per month, plus his share of utilities. He makes about $20-22 per hour, so not that much different, and says he’s happy and takes little vacations and has money for his toys but is he really “living” if he doesn’t even have his own place? I wouldn’t want to live like that past my 20s and you can’t have a family like that.
So what, exactly, is a living wage?