In 2025, the federal minimum wage is officially a “poverty wage.” The annual earnings of a single adult working full-time, year-round at $7.25 an hour now fall below the poverty threshold of $15,650 (established by the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines). The limitations of how the federal government calculates poverty understate how far…

In 2025, the federal minimum wage is officially a “poverty wage.” The annual earnings of a single adult working full-time, year-round at $7.25 an hour now fall below the poverty threshold of $15,650 (established by the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines). The limitations of how the federal government calculates poverty understate how far the minimum wage is from economic security for workers and their families.

    • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      3 minutes ago

      Woah 16k gross? That’s wild.

      Maybe if rent was… Checks notes $395 a month.

      Then you’d have $9,500 a year, so $790 a month to spend on everything else. Let’s say you then buy only flour for sustenance… AI said $27 per month to eat just flour.

      Which leaves you with $763 a month for entertainment.

      What are these people even complaining about?

      Maybe don’t eat golden sushi and crack cocaine for every meal Jesus

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
      91·
      6 hours ago

      The numbers are all made up, and they’ve not kept track with inflation or the economy in a long time. Things like “minimum wage” simply lingered to allow those better off that sometimes have a conscience to sleep at night, thinking there is a system in place for the less fortunate. Our Federal government has been failing us longer than Mango Mussolini’s presence, he is simply baring and accelerating the asshattery.

    • booly@sh.itjust.works
      511·
      16 hours ago

      The poverty line was historically measured simply by multiplying the USDA’s cheapest food plan for a household to buy groceries with adequate nutrition, and multiplying by 3.

      Then, in the intervening 6 decades or so, food inflation has gone up significantly slower than housing inflation, to where that simple assumption of “barely enough to eat, times 3” began systematically understating actual poverty.

      Today, feeding the reference family of 4 (2 adults 20-50, 1 kid aged 6-8, 1 aged 9-11) costs $996.20 per month (as of March 2025). That’s basically $12,000 per year, so the poverty line for a family of 4 is $32,150 (updated every January with September data).