Living on Minimum Wage

I often like to do my own research on subjects when I have time. I decided to look up the minimum wage and then adjust it for inflation. You can see the 2019 adjustment that I made next to the actual minimum wage for that year. This information was not easy to find online so I had to do all my own inflation adjustments!

Some thoughts I had as I read this is that when these wages were given, most families were one income earners. Most families now are earning two wages or one and a half. If it is a single person, they have the ability to rent a room etc. I am not going to say that living on minimum wage is easy but I just read a write up by a woman (I don't have permission to share the whole write up as she just wrote it in a forum) who is married with 7 children. Her husband makes slightly more than minimum wage if they both worked but they are still low enough income to qualify for SSI for disability for a handicapped child and their kids qualify for Medicaid.

They live in a house in NC that cost $115,000. They moved there after doing research on jobs and housing costs. They pay $400.00 a month for health insurance. They bought their cars with cash.

The first 2 years their child with disabilities was born, they got 80K in debt. Sometimes, they eat beans and rice because it is so inexpensive. She says things have to be "well budgeted" but that living on two minimum wage salaries for her family of nine is "completely doable". She spends about $500 a month on food. She says "read The Millionaire Next Door" (A book I also recommend!). I like her spirit and agree with her philosophy.