"Living Wage Calculator"

[OhioChick]

http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/browse_state.php

Interesting site....

[texpatriot2004]

1. That is an interesting site. Thanks for sharing it. nm

[Azlady]

2. Thank you, I heard about this but couldn't find it -

[tammywammy]

3. Thanks for sharing the link. n/t

[greendog]

4. Says the Living Wage for my town is $6.43 per hour.

:rofl:

[ChromeFoundry]

5. Do you have to hunt for your own food? n/t

[greendog]

9. That's an idea!

I could live in a rusty old school bus at the edge of town and shoot at deer with a home made bow and arrow.

I still think it'd take more than 6.43 an hour to get by.

[SlicerDicer-]

6. Looks like that site took the Failbus.

Totally wrong for my area. Lame site. There is no wai at all.

[MilesColtrane]

7. Seems to be on the low side to me.

I wonder when these figures were last adjusted for inflation.

[4lbs]

8. Wow, my living wage estimate for my area is $10.60 per hour.

That seems about right. Working 2000 hours per year (50 weeks x 40 hours per week), that's $21,200 per year.

[Incitatus]

10. There's housing in my city for $630?

:shrug:

[nebenaube]

11. looked up my town

I spend twice as much on food to feed three but at least it stays local... My property taxes are more than any of the taxes reported. My housing is four times the costs reported. It lists non-poverty wages for what essentially are part time occupations here. It's a nice try but the data is so erroneous it's a joke. Largely because everyone's debts (costs) are national i.e. they go to Delaware.

[yellerpup]

12. These figures aren't close to what it takes to live in our area.

There hasn't been an apartment in this town for under $1,200 since 1986. Two adults could eat on $335/month if they stick to canned soup and packaged mac and cheese and don't have any meat, meat substitute, or include fresh vegetables or fruits. Transportation $127/mo. in what era? Only if you can walk to work and can find sturdy second hand shoes. Wages listed are far under the prevailing rate, too.

[AllieB]

13. For the Boston area, an annual gross income of $28,425 for a single person is very low.

For two people and two kids it's $58,146. That is pretty tough in the Boston area.

On edit, the individual housing costs are ridiculously low. I have never heard of a place thay can fit 2 kids and the parents for $1,324.

[Historic NY]

14. Lots of inaccurate data there....in my county you can't live in the ghetto

for what they list as housing expense. If they're going to have site one woud think it was 2008 data not stuff from 04. They don't even have the population right.

[Lyric]

15. In my town, a Living Wage for a 2 Adult/1 Child family is $14.92

My partner makes $7.25, part-time. *sigh*

[Connonym]

16. adjusted for inflation or not, that's really depressing

This is not how I imagined my life would turn out. I guess I'm lucky that I'm still healthy enough to work 2 jobs.

[Muttocracy]

20. I think the site was a project done in 2004 (posted about that below). nt

[Connonym]

24. My point was that I'm still making less than the "living wage" listed

If I'm not making the 2004 cost of living, I'm sure I'm really, really behind the cost of living in 2008. Either way, it makes me slightly sick to my stomach.

[Phred42]

17. HAve to wonder if the author is a member of the Reality Based Community.

The Housing alone is completely BS didn't need

to get to the rest of it because housing was so far off.

[Omaha Steve]

18. Great find

But I wonder how some people could live on the expenses they quote. In other words, Marta and I are over budget.

[Muttocracy]

19. to everyone saying estimates are low - I think the site was done with 2004 data

http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/sources.php

I remember seeing info about it a couple of years ago.

If there is not ongoing funding for the project (very likely at a state university these days), they probably haven't been able to update it since then.

[joop]

21. Interesting idea but way off on the data for my area

Puhlease. Housing for $1189 in SoCal? Uh, where? I didn't have that low a mortgage payment when we bought our house 10 years ago at the housing market low. No way.

Food cost is ridiculously low as well - I see the population on the city data goes with the 2000 census--maybe that's how old this info is?

Great idea--I would really like to see it more accurate, though.

[efilon]

22. Estimates?

When was this site started? $440.00 for housing? Really? I'd like to know where it is. Cheapest I've seen is $525. and that is for a dump and does not include any utilities. Medical - $80.00? I spend $486. per month and that doesn't include the $100.00 per month deductible I'm paying to the hospital for now.

What's funny is that I looked at the estimates for a very small town about 200 miles from here where I lived growing up and when my children were very young. The price they have stated for rent is only @100 less than for where I now live. Also, the transportation costs are the same for both areas. That's a crock because here you don't have to drive 50 or more miles one way to get a decent paying job.

I think they need to need to do some reconfiguring on this "living wage" calculator. Living wage of $6.80 might be enough here if you were living under a bridge!
:wow:

[ChromeFoundry]

23. According to the site Data...

this is based on year 2000 data, projected out to 2004. Still interesting to look at.

see post #19: from JoeIsOneOfUs

[norepubsin08]

25. Interesting!

[Muttocracy]

26. this credit union does an estimate for its community - technique could be applied elsewhere

A lot depends on whether health insurance comes with employer or not, and other assumptions:

http://www.alternatives.org/livablewage_notes2007.html