We have a couple of teenagers living with us who both work about five days a week with (usually) five or six hour shifts. I think they’re both making about nine bucks an hour. After the tax withholding, that’s about $230 a week for each of them, or $460 combined. The cheapest apartments in the area are over $700 a month. If one of them tried to get an apartment, it would cost more than three full weeks of pay. If they shacked up together, it would be close to two weeks of pay. And then they have to pay for utilities, phone, car, and car insurance, before they even get to groceries or internet and cable. Nine bucks an hour means that they can’t move out and start a life of their own unless they start working 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week, and that leaves no time for taking college classes or otherwise working to improve their employment opportunities.
In his State of the Union speech, the president proposed raising the minimum wage to nine dollars an hour. Here’s how Paul Ryan responded.
RYAN: I think it’s inflationary. I think it actually is counterproductive in many ways. You end up costing job from people who are the bottom rung of the economic ladder. Look, I wish we could just pass a law saying everybody should make more money without any adverse consequences. The problem is you’re costing jobs from those who are just trying to get entry level jobs. The goal ought to be is to get people out of entry level jobs into better jobs, better paying jobs. That’s better education and a growing economy. Those are some of the things he talked about and I don’t think raising minimum wage — and history is very clear about this — doesn’t actually accomplish those goals.
It’s like these Republicans think being an asshole is a full-time job. It’s like they feel like they can never take a break from being an asshole. They have to be an asshole one hundred percent of time during all their waking hours or they’re betraying the cause or something.
Nine dollars an hour isn’t shit. It’s a dead end.
