Is a minimum wage intended to provide support for one person or for a family (including dependents)? You aren't really clear in your comment on this point, which is common confusion in much discussion of this topic.

If it is for an entire family, then shouldn't there be a different, lower minimum wage for an individual without a family? What about a teenager with an after school job? What about a retiree who is just trying to keep busy but doesn't need a living wage at all?

IMO an average household. Going into more detail than that is a slippery slope towards profiling and discriminatory pay.

How does that work? If the minimum wage is intended to be sufficient for an "average household", then shouldn't it be less for a household without children, and smaller still for a single person?

That is discrimination.

So by your logic an employer would be required to pay every employee a wage that would allow them to support a family even if they don't have a family to support?

Yes. I’m talking about the minimum wage for any employee.

Consider the fact that it is illegal in the US to ask an interviewee their age, marital status, and family status, among other things.

None of that is illegal. You can ask, but you can't discriminate.

The page is wrong. Those are not illegal questions.

Agree to disagree

Um, no, you can read the law itself or follow some links on the page you linked. This isn't a matter of opinion.

Any employee? Part time job for a teenager?

s/?/.

That’s nuts, I lived a luxurious life in college on less than that. It’s certainly enough money for a room and food and a car and savings left over in nearly every US municipality.

Yay, must be nice being single all your life because you'll never be able to afford a family. Some people don't have the ability to get higher than min-wage jobs - ever because they lack the education necessary.

I live in an average city in utah. We rent a home for 1400. That's been our average for the past 4 places we've rented regardless of whether it was in a bigger city or rural. There are many rentals that are double or triple that w/ more room.

We generally try to go for 4-5 bedroom.. which includes a master, 2 kids rooms, and 2 offices for myself and my wife.

On top of that healthcare is about 1000/month. Kids grow fast we need to replace their wardrobe completely every 4-6 months. so say $200/month on clothes for two boys.

We're already at $2600/month. Add about $1000 for groceries (formula is $250 a month!). That's $3600. Add gas to get around town maybe $250/month. So $3800. Shouldn't people have some leisure? You said you lived a luxurious life, did you own a car? Go to social events? Go to movies ? how much per month was alotted for 'luxury'....I'd like to take the kids to Disney land that'd cost about $3000 or more.. so to budget that we'd need to break out maybe $300 per month into savings.

This is in Utah. San Francisco you're looking at a room going for 2x as much as our 5 br house. Cost of living increasing exponentially from there. I don't see how anybody in California exists on their minimum wages....

I'm a developer but I sometimes take crappy clients when jobs are low. Currently my most active client can only afford $25... I feel practically raped as I was used to $50/60 per hour doing laravel+vue, but can't figure out how to keep steady higher paying clientele. Summer left us almost homeless though, so I put out tons of lowball ads just to keep us housed. So now I'm essentially a senior-level developer earning $10 more than minimum wage. Depression and imposter syndrome don't help much with things either. Even for people w/ good skills times get hard in America. Higher minimum wages might make us freelancers be able to charge more, since we can compare our rates w/ low-skill workers.

I worked temp jobs without benefits for more years than I care to think about.

Here are some additional costs you haven't mentioned.

Medical insurance

Elder/child care

Student loan payments

Life doesn't always proceed exactly as you planned. Here are some situations that have happened to friends and acquaintances.

Husband became addicted to Oxycontin, sold most family assets to pay for it.

Wife moved to the opposite end of the country before the husband. She was told that she wouldn't have to work and to buy everything she needed on credit cards. He left the country with no forwarding address.

2500/month

- 400 taxes

- 600 rent (at least there's a listing for something at that price in San Jose, whether it's legit or not I don't know...)

- 0 car (Happy Birthday, college student)

- 100 gas

- 125 groceries (warning: not luxurious!)

- 440 health care

- 100 electricity

- 60 water

- 16 netflix premium (you said luxurious)

- 13 amazon prime

- 46 gym membership

- 30 internet

- 160 clothing

- 125 car insurance

- 0 car repairs (you lucked out this month)

= 285

Dating?

130 dating

= 155

- 350 car payment. (Happy Birthday, full grown adult.)

= -195

+ 130 impending breakup

- 0 alcohol (you lucked out this breakup)

= -65 savings

If someone is spending $130/month dating while at the bottom rung of the income ladder, They're Doing It Wrong. If they can't talk someone out of their clothes after a $10 coffee date it's probably best for everyone that their genitals not come near another human being's until they've leveled-up their ability to intelligently utilize their available resources.

And a GYM MEMBERSHIP?!?! On minimum wage?!?! Prison workouts/calisthenics/military-style functional fitness. That stuff costs $0, and can be learned from free YT vids.

In what year?

2010

565 room (5 ppl in one apt but in separate rooms)

800 car all in (I drove a bmw, wasteful luxury)

600 food (ate out all the time, wasteful luxury)

50 utilities (gas and internet were included in rent)

100 entertainment (not much time)

That’s about 2400 in 2019 dollars and if I had gotten a cheaper car or taken public transit like most students there would have been plenty of savings.

On minimum wage you are about 400 in the hole after taxes, and before health insurance, savings, retirement, SO, kids etc. Not to mention this is one rented bedroom, not even a studio apt.

I did as well (in massachusetts in 2016)

With all respect to your experience, comparing a college roommate situation to a FTE earning minimum wage is a bit apples to oranges IMO. Students are eligible for many benefits including health care, and have a finite period of time (typically in their youth) until graduation. Whereas a minimum wage worker may be living on this amount with marginal raises for their whole life. Think about having a marriage and kids all while living in your college room indefinitely.

I rented a house, and didn't have roommates? I mean, it was in the shithole that is worcester, but its not impossible.