this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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United States | News & Politics
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I'm assuming you mean they will be getting a lower portion of the increases? The chart you have here looks more like how many people fall in a given bracket.
It makes plenty of sense to shift things to greater gains on the lower end. A while back there was a study that said somewhere around $75K was the point at which actual income gains start to level off as far as what improvements it makes to your life. At that point you can probably pay your bills and afford to eat without stressing so much over every decision. I forget if that was for a single person or what, but for where I live it would be doable to be sure. Lower than that and you need that extra boost to just meet the basic needs.
The $75k figure is from 2010. The article seems to be https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1011492107.
You acknowledge $75k as a living wage in 2010. How would research from 2010 be used for wage suppression today? Was it wage suppression in 2010?
Actually I didn't specify when. The measure of if a wage is livable is going to vary greatly based on where you are of course. Around here one of the larger employers handing out 'just basic work' level jobs starts off at around $40K which is roughly a $10K increase over the last few years according to their persistent hiring sign and it's regarded locally as being decent pay.
Some very rough math would say that if you made $75K and took home say 60% of that after tax and insurance you would make about 3,750 a month. A rent or mortgage in the $1000-1500 space isn't too abnormal here leaving $2K+ for your other needs, utilities, food, etc
It's not a life of luxury level to be sure, but being someone who has gone from "milk to make mac & chz is a luxury" to actually having a few bits extra to buy some nice toys there is a cutoff out there where cash stops being the main stress in life. In my case it was somewhere around the point when I could just go buy a jug of milk without having to check if that was going to leave enough gas money for the rest of the week...
Perhaps poverty and a living wage are different. I often get caught up in the difference between one million and $75k.
like me, can you please remind me?