Synobun
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2006
- Messages
- 24,616
Here's a question: What do you think the point of a minimum wage is?
Recently, the City of Vancouver released a report saying that an affordable 1-bedroom apartment in the city is $2000/mo. Our minimum wage is currently $12.65/hr. At full-time hours, you're at least $100 short on paying rent, not even taking into consideration all of your other necessities.
This has understandably been ridiculed by, well, everyone except our equivalent to Republicans.
But something that keeps cropping up in the discourse is the typical right wing/conservative retort: You're not supposed to be able to survive on minimum wage, so it doesn't matter that minimum wage earners cannot afford a 1-bedroom apartment.
Another retort is that the rate is for the city core and not the surrounding neighbourhoods. This could be a good point, but I live fairly close to the southern edge of the city limits and a 1-bedroom apartment here is still at least $1200/mo. If you want a managed apartment building (aka, not living with your landlord in a split house), bump that up to a minimum of $1400/mo.
So even if you live elsewhere in the city, or perhaps even in a connected city that has public transit to Vancouver, you're still going to end up paying 70-90% of your income on rent.
This is far different than how it used to be. It's also dramatically different than the recommended expense percentage for rent which is still at 30% of your income.
Anyways, the "typical retort" is confusing to me. It is confusing to me because to my mind, the entire premise and point of a minimum wage is that it should be survivable. You should be able to afford basic housing on a minimum wage. Forced group living is not basic housing. In my mind, basic housing is a space that is your own, free from intervention and reliance on others. If you have to share your space, you don't have access to proper housing. Perhaps a full-fledged 1-bedroom apartment is unreasonable, but "bachelor" suites aren't much cheaper and aren't built. Micro-suites are built like dorms (shared bathrooms, shared kitchens), and still expensive ($900/mo).
So if there is no expectation of survival, then there is no point to having a minimum wage. You might as well abolish the minimum wage if that's the belief.
I am no economist. Perhaps I am missing something. So I turn to CFC. What do you think the point of a minimum wage is? Should the "minimum" be survivable, or should it meet some other metric?
Recently, the City of Vancouver released a report saying that an affordable 1-bedroom apartment in the city is $2000/mo. Our minimum wage is currently $12.65/hr. At full-time hours, you're at least $100 short on paying rent, not even taking into consideration all of your other necessities.
This has understandably been ridiculed by, well, everyone except our equivalent to Republicans.
But something that keeps cropping up in the discourse is the typical right wing/conservative retort: You're not supposed to be able to survive on minimum wage, so it doesn't matter that minimum wage earners cannot afford a 1-bedroom apartment.
Another retort is that the rate is for the city core and not the surrounding neighbourhoods. This could be a good point, but I live fairly close to the southern edge of the city limits and a 1-bedroom apartment here is still at least $1200/mo. If you want a managed apartment building (aka, not living with your landlord in a split house), bump that up to a minimum of $1400/mo.
So even if you live elsewhere in the city, or perhaps even in a connected city that has public transit to Vancouver, you're still going to end up paying 70-90% of your income on rent.
This is far different than how it used to be. It's also dramatically different than the recommended expense percentage for rent which is still at 30% of your income.
Anyways, the "typical retort" is confusing to me. It is confusing to me because to my mind, the entire premise and point of a minimum wage is that it should be survivable. You should be able to afford basic housing on a minimum wage. Forced group living is not basic housing. In my mind, basic housing is a space that is your own, free from intervention and reliance on others. If you have to share your space, you don't have access to proper housing. Perhaps a full-fledged 1-bedroom apartment is unreasonable, but "bachelor" suites aren't much cheaper and aren't built. Micro-suites are built like dorms (shared bathrooms, shared kitchens), and still expensive ($900/mo).
So if there is no expectation of survival, then there is no point to having a minimum wage. You might as well abolish the minimum wage if that's the belief.
I am no economist. Perhaps I am missing something. So I turn to CFC. What do you think the point of a minimum wage is? Should the "minimum" be survivable, or should it meet some other metric?