>

I live in a tourist area, and our McDonalds already pays $17 to start.
It's more that we need to embrace change beyond paychecks. The right to life, liberty, and happiness must mean the right to food, shelter, education, health care at a minimum. Paycheck adjustments should be the determining factor between a US based vacation vs a European vacation, not whether someone gets to sleep in their car or under a bridge. >

This person empathizes. >

My life has been a roller-coaster. I get it. I definitely get it. >

Cue the cries of FIRST THEY WANTED 15 NOW IT'S 25. WHY NOT GIVE THEM A BILLION DOLLARS AN HOUR. malarkey the reps love to spill. >

He is correct.  $$15 an hour won't work either. 


$15/hr full time = 31000/year


$26,000 after taxes


Rent is $18,000 ($1500/mo)


Food is $3600 ($300/mo)


Electricity + Phone + Internet is $3000 ($250/month)


Congratulations, you are out of money.


Clothes? Gas? Car Payment? Maintenance? Insurance? Entertainment/Leisure? Unexpected expenses?
Oh...don't forget that you have no health insurance and are one accident/medical emergency away from total financial collapse.
u/PorkTornado >

I live in the Bay Area where $15 an hour is minimum wage. $1500 a month wouldn’t even get you your own shitty studio unless you were extremely lucky.
Our combined water and gas/electricity bill for an 800 sqft, 1 bath apartment with two occupants is already nearly $200 a month… And that’s only because we never turn the heater on and work to conserve water… we were actually praised by the water service for being in the top 20% of water conserving households.
Our fiber internet should be $39, but with all the random fees and taxes the county adds on it’s more like $55, and my phone bill isn’t even included in that… And the Internet will get more expensive next year because we had a sign on discount, probably to around $60-70.
All this to say, I am fortunate in that I make a decent wage, but it is rough out here and $15 an hour absolutely isn’t enough.