While I was on here or possibly another subreddit I saw a graph showing how if the minimum wage actually grew with inflation since the 70s and if the weight of value of the U.S. dollar were accounted for as well, we would be making about $23 an hour.
I currently make $16. It's an odd place to be since I know I'm well enough over minimum wage to where others may tell me to simply stop whining, shut up, and be grateful, but I also still struggle. I don't eat out much at all, I haven't bought new clothes in years, I'm still in the same apartment paying $900 a month, but the price of everything else, food, electric, and gas just gobbles up my paychecks as I receive them.
I'm JUST over the limit where I cannot receive government assistance too. The only thing I have free is medicaid and even then I barely qualify. I am scared shitless for December because my job wants me to start contributing to a 401k but I know damn well I can't even afford that. I have no savings for when I retire and absolutely zero leftover money to do anything ever. I don't travel, I don't go out, no movies, no museums, no camping trips, no sports, all I do is go to the nearby park and run or sometimes picnic there on Saturdays.
I'm just saying I don't understand how the hell it is that I cannot afford to do jack shit but wake up, shower, work, eat, work, eat, maybe get a run in, and sleep in a time where technology should be taking over and things should, in theory, be easier.
Meanwhile my grandfather was a janitor working minimum wage at an airport and was somehow able to support a stay at home wife and two kids. He was able to buy 2 houses in his lifetime and owned 3 cars. Even after he passed away there was money leftover for my grandma. My grandma, even when I was born and even right now still insists and demands only name brand items. According to my mother that is all my grandmother accepted from the store when she did groceries in the 70s. If I tried only buying name brand food right now I'd be lucky to walk out the door with one plastic bag full of groceries for less than $50.
So you mean to tell me that in the 60s and 70s an immigrant from Puerto Rico who didn't even graduate from the 8th grade could get the money to board a plane, come to America, get a job as a janitor at an airport, and somehow support an entire wife, 2 kids, several pets, own 2 houses, cover college for 1 of those kids, and buy 3 cars? Meanwhile I have a college degree, over 6 years of management experience, 10 years with Windows and Microsoft experience yet I'm expected to just take these $16 every hour and go hungry the last few days before payday just because? How does this make sense? I get that I have some debts from a prior relationship gone horrendously wrong but I can never seem to save enough to pay it off. Or once my little $2,000 is saved up, something else happens out of my control I end up having to pay for. This year it was a Thyroid scare that lead to some expensive hospital testing. Who knows wtf it'll be next year.
I'm just saying, I feel like if the minimum wage was $23 an hour we would all most likely be back to where things once were “back in the day.” I'm tired of older people telling me to just “budget better.” I don't drink Starbucks, I make my own coffee, all my ingredients for food are off brand, my clothes are the cheapest stuff I can get at local thrift stores, my few subscriptions are Instacart, Doordash, and Amazon as I do not have a car, sometimes when the apartment maintenance can't be arsed to fix the damn washers and dryers I do my laundry by hand in the sink too and dry it on my balcony or in the shower. I can't even go out and enjoy a date and I'm scared of somehow not having enough and making a fool of myself.