"The MIT Living Wage Calculator lets you figure out how much is 'enough' to live in your county by comparing the living wage—based on the barebones cost of housing, food, transportation, and child and health care—against the poverty wage and the minimum wage."

"This is not a middle class lifestyle—the living wage does not include any savings and only one set of clothing for either hot and cold weather, not both."

"Glasmeier [professor of economic geography and regional planning at MIT] says the argument that a higher minimum wage would reduce employment is unfounded. Research shows that employers do not tend to cut employees, whom they have invested time and money in, when wages go up. Rather, they invest in productivity, so their returns go up. So raising wages plus public sector employment are good investments."

Read the article on the MIT.edu site ((link...)) or check the living wage in your area: (link...).

-- OneTahiti