I did some calculations last night, and this is the conclusion I came to.
I am a daycare teacher, in a poor town in Kentucky. A small daycare. I work 11 hours a day, go to work before sunup and in the winter I don't get home til after sundown. Most of the time, I work 50+ hours a week, because we are always short handed. This week I was told I “literally” cannot take a day off because of how shorthanded we are.
When I work over 50 hours, I get a paycheck for about 400 dollars. My paystub says I get paid $9 an hour. But when I divide that 400 by 50 (or the 412 by 54 hours I worked last week) it comes to 7.62 cents. Under the Kentucky minimum wage.
No wonder I can't afford to live.