https://www.americanprogress.org/article/its-long-past-time-...
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/16/minimum-wage-many-workers-st...
Unions are not just for wages. They are also to counter at will employment and abusive labor practices. To believe they only serve to improve wages is short sighted when looking at the greater macro labor situation, where workers are treated as replaceable and disposable.
Also the definition of "living wage" varies wildly depending on what kitchen sink people want to throw into it. People seem to think that everyone deserves to make enough money for luxuries whereas that shouldn't be the case in general.
Yes, of course. The income taxes are almost zero (or negative), and for one person living by themselves in a studio apartment that's $400 for rent for a cheap studio apartment and $800 a month in groceries and gas, which is quite a lot.
And that's assuming you can't live out of your parents house as you work, which is the suggested way of doing this kind of thing. There's zero reason to move out if you can't afford it. It allows you to save up money and gain skills with less stress.
The "living wage" myth gets repeated way too often.
It may only seem like that at the low end because of artificially high minimum wages in some states ($15/hr) which basically makes multiple skill levels of labor all pay the same when they used to pay different.
Also these two statements are in conflict:
> Unemployment is at a 60 year low.
> just a shortage of people willing to work for poverty wages