What is considered good money?

[Bandit]

Is ten dollars an hour "good money"? Is it twelve dollars an hour, sixteen or what? I think minimum wage is still $5.15 an hour so I know $10.00 is way better than minimum but is it good money?

[Dookus]

1. no

Ten bucks an hour isn't good money, at least for an adult.

[TransitJohn]

2. IMHO it would be

$30,000.00/yr for a SINGLE person, scaled for COL in your area. I'm a single father, living in Wyoming, and feel that $40,000.00/yr would be a minimum to be comfortable after the bills/groceries are paid.

[MikeG]

3. It depends on your lifestyle.

[NMDemDist2]

4. depends on where you live IMO

$10 is starvation wages in Phoenix, but probably Ok in Flagstaff AZ for instance

[mermaid]

6. I Made It On Ten Bucks An Hour In

Austin, Texas...one of the ten most-expensive areas to live in the country. But I lived like a pauper to do it!!

And Federal Minimum Wage is $5.25 an hour

[sandnsea]

9. It's $5.15

I mean a dime is nothing to argue over, but it is $5.15.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/minimumwage.htm

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

5. I canNOT believe minimum wage is still that low

my God. Isn't it $ 6 and some change?

Even at that. How do people live in places that are even HALFWAY expensive on minimum wage? How? Do they work 12 jobs and live in a cardboard box?

Even here in Texas, where the cost of living isn't nearly as high as other places, you HAVE to have a car or you are screwed and car payments, insurance (required by law) and gas would suck up a generous portion of a 40 hour workweek on minimum wage.

My husband makes $20 an hour, $30 overtime. He works at least 20 hours of overtime a week. Maybe closer to 25. I have no idea what my hourly rate is as I'm salaried. But whenever I get a stipend for tutoring or whatever, it is $25 an hour (teacher).

[Worst Username Ever]

7. $20/hr is about 40K a year, most people need that

coming into the household to have kids, a house, etc and be somewhat comfortable. Average wage in the US is about 33K a year (or it was during my sociology days a couple years ago), and that is about 16 bucks an hour. SO it could be said that the average is about 16 an hour, so you can use that as a benchmark...

[JayS]

8. Good money is any money that goes in my pocket. :)

[Owsley]

10. Nope

I think $10/hr is either at or below what I've heard called a "living wage." There's a pretty good article in this months's Harpers involving a discussion about ressurecting a progressive movement and Nader highlights the "living wage" as an issue that progressives should use.

Owsley

[Deja Q]

11. $10 for one person to live off of isn't even a living wage!

I'd say $12/hr 40 hr/wk is a minimum liveable wage and that's poverty level with no room for catastrophy. (ignore what the feds say is poverty, those figures are decades old, the last I heard...)

A family, with small room for catastrophy, needs one $20/hr 40 hr/wk job, though a second job helps out financially, though the kids would suffer.

$10/hr is not good money. Not if you're one person trying to support yourself. If you have a kid attached, it stretches things way too thin.

[Bandit]

12. You guys all make me feel bad now

I pay my drivers $10.00 an hour. They are delivery drivers and require no education other than having a valid drivers license. I actually start them at $9.00 an hour for one month trial basis and if they are happy and I am happy I raise their pay to $10.00 and then every six months they come up for review and raise if warranted. So far everyone has received at least a little raise but the economy has not been the best for the last few years. The most any of my drivers makes is $14.50 per hour.

[JayS]

15. It all depends on where you live. $10 per hour would not go...

...all that far in Manhattan but it sure would in the Rio Grande Valley.

[laruemtt]

13. good money is

money you don't sell your soul for.

[Unperson 309]

14. "Good Money Is Money You Don't Sell Your Soul For." AMEN!!

Yesterday, for 14 hours work, I made $16.00
Today, I've been working for ten hours and have made $27.00.
Some days, nothing and some days, as high as $50.00.
But I'm my own boss and I'm not ANYONE'S slave!


I won't say I don't go to sleep praying for $50.00 days, but as Aesop put it so well: "Far better freedom in famine than a feast in fetters."

I wear NO man's collar!

309

[amazona]

16. no it isn't good money but you can survive on it

To me "Good money" would allow for luxuries which wouldn't be the case on $10 an hour. It would cover all the basics IF your job also provided health care but only because I live in an area with low housing and overall low cost of living.

I think in some areas a person making $10 an hour would either have to take in roommates or be homeless.