Share Your Story: Have you ever lived on minimum wage?
A woman working full time for a full year at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour will make only $14,500 a year — an amount which is below the federal poverty line for a family of three. For tipped workers, the federal minimum cash wage is only $2.13 an hour!
Increasing the minimum wage for all workers, including tipped workers, would give working families a boost and help close the wage gap — nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers and tipped workers are women.
But we need your help. We want to hear about what it takes to live on minimum wage from women who've experienced it. Share your story below to help us show legislators how important raising the minimum wage would be for families!
Please note: The views expressed in the stories below are those of the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the National Women's Law Center. All statements of fact in these stories have been provided by the individual authors, and the National Women's Law Center cannot and does not vouch for their accuracy. The Center will compile the stories and may use them, in whole or in part, in our advocacy efforts.
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Your Stories
Logan Bunbury
, Washington, student
It's very sad to see the stories in the comments about women who are not interested in working... however, due to the literal impossibility of living a "good" life as a single mother with a legal job on welfare, I don't find it surprising. I live in Washington state, which has one of the highest minimum wages in the country. That said, minimum wages are often proportional to the cost of living in an area, so even though someone may make $8+ an hour, living costs are also very high. If I was not lucky enough to have received support from my parents, there is no way I could have made it through college. Though I was lucky enough to have parents that would support me, when I took a break from school for a six month period I was required to pay for all my own living expenses whilst working a minimum-wage job. This is what I found: The area in which I live is unaccomodating for low-income persons. The lowest rent one could find for a studio apartment is 650/month, and by a studio I mean one room with maybe a hot plate in it and a shared restroom. That leaves 6700 a year for living... or about $550 per month, or $18 a day. Take into account heating costs (remember, Seattle) and you're down to four hundred dollars a month to pay for all your food, laundry, transporation costs, internet bills, whatever your costs are. Four hundred dollars a month is a tough budget for a single woman... I mean, it's only $13 a day, for ALL your living expenses sans rent and electricity. Now factor in a child or two into the equation. It is simply not feasible to support a family of two or three with children on only thirteen dollars a day, especially when nutritous foods and vegetables cost significantly more than ordering from a fast-food menu. My boyfriend also works a minimum-wage job. Because he made something like 15,000 last year working full time with no vacations, he scored just over some "magic line" in taxes that would have given him a substantial return. Pretty much, because he was a hard worker and made something like 200 dollars above an imaginary line, he did not receive roughly 1,000 dollars in tax returns he would have been entitled to. What a strange monetary world we live in.
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Lana
Tacoma, WA, n/a
I think the correct question would be HAVE YOU EVER SURVIVED ON MINIMUM WAGE ? because there is no way anyone can live in minimum wage today. Yes, I did survived on minimum wage most of my time in America. SO, where do you think I slept while I worked part time minimum wage ? By the entrance door like dog in people’s house, in the car and stinky shelters. I was not able to cook a food so I eat junk from food bank which is mostly GMO and chemical crap. SO, today I developed sever asthma and allergy and I am very limited on food. Oh, I forgot to mention that 8 years ago I had broken legs by accident while lived in the Christian shelter. So, I was kicked out off shelter on the street while barely walked on crutches for this reason. No one wants to be responsible for disable even those loving Christians. While I was still recovering and left with one crutch I had to bed Mexican manager in fast food to hire me. I was getting $600/month, I paid $500/month to rent a tiny room. I had no car, at that time, and had to walk on my crutch to work 2 miles, because there was no bus line. I never could save money to buy cheap ugly looking car, because there was nothing left from minimum wage. Did I told you, that it’s disaster to get even minimum wage job if you don’t a car. They always look at you like there is something wrong with you. Thanx God 9 years later I met my ex.boyfriend who was mechanic and found me a old beat up car he could put together. That was a relief. I was so happy like never before in my entire time in the US. I felt safe. I knew if I end up to be homeless again I have a place where to stay now. The only problem is caps and residents who doesn’t care that you are screwed by the system like a slave and can not afford a bed in the house.So, this is what minimum wage does to a normal people like me who never had drugs or alcohol in their life time, all it is they just hard workers and corporate takes a advantage of them for their own profit to live a luxury life while we live worse then a straight dogs.
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I'll entertain you! Fed up Mom.
Kennebunk, ME, Pre Kindergarten Teacher
I am a 42 year old single mother and Pre school Teacher. I make a little over min wage. I have over ten years of experience as a Pre school Teacher and have worked as a Youth and Family Counselor in a crisis unit for children. I have also worked as a Medication Administrator in an assisted living facility for the elderly. My job is to prepare children for Kindergarten. It's not a babysitting gig as some people think. There are a lot of ways our government could create more jobs and actually bring more money into the economy, yet they are more focussed on topics that just make the situation worse. America the greatest country in the world, I think not. Not anymore. Hard work and dedication used to pay off, now, what pays is looking good, talking smack and being so incredible stupid that you're entertaining enough to be put on tv and in the media. That's what makes you money. Acting like a reject from hell. The single moms who work their asses off all day and take care of their kids, they don't get a brake. What they get is to tuck their children into bed while their feet are aching, head hurting, and sit down turn on the tv and see some "housewife" in her glittery dress, tits pushed to the ceiling, face painted like a hooker, talking about how she doesn't want to live in a "used" house because it's dirty, or bragging about the book she wrote and can't even pronounce half the words in it. Then there's the 30 year old "princesses" who live with their mommy and daddy have "sleepovers" and complain that the cheese platter they just bought mixed the cheese and only "poor people" mix their cheese. I'm sitting on my ripped up couch, thinking "You dumb bitch, poor people are glad to have cheese", go get a job and support your damn self because last time I checked, if you're living with mommy and daddy, you never had a job, you're ass is flat broke! You are poor people honey cause you don't own shit! You're parents do, not you! How about we take that shit off the air, it's embarrassing that we choose that to represent America. How about we put on the hard working moms and dads who struggle everyday to be good parents and good damn citizens, and make them the realitiy "stars"? Anyone watching that shit who lives in another country, their laughing at us! Greatest Country in the World? How about the most disgraceful country? We were the greatest. We were America. We just got too greedy, too lazy and too damn stupid. Now, our citizens can't afford to live in spite of working hard. Our children, their hopes and dreams are to become rock stars and movie stars, not doctors or nurses or policemen. They want to be rich and famous and they know that you don't have to be smart or kind or hardworking to achieve that, so why bother. Eventually, when people get tired of trying and working and struggling, we're all gonna say why bother? Then where are we going to be?You wanna pay to be entertained? How about coming to my house. It's real funny. I come home from work to be greeted by two kids, who have prepared a speech arguing the dynamics of the family ladder system. One has Asperger's Disorder, so I have to look up most of the words in his speech as I've never even heard of them. My daughter is crying because she wanted to sing the speech into the swiffer sweeper handle and he won't let her. The house is a disaster because they've had to entertain themselves all day because I can't afford day camp. My head, back, legs, hands and feet hurt, I need to make dinner, don't feel I can stand up much longer, and yet I stand and try and act like I'm interested in this speech. I'm trying to smile through the "woops let me begin again" and the "I knew it would sound better if I sang it" when I notice the 5,000 flies swarming around my head. Oh beautiful, because I didn't have the 15 dollars this week to pay to have my trash picked up, I now have flies breeding in the kitchen trashcan. Their dodging at my head, get caught in my hair. My children are laughing and crying because they are both amused and afraid for my life. I reluctantly pick up the bottle of carpet fresh that I splurged on this week and begin to spray the flies, who are apparently just angered by being sprayed with carpet fresh and begin hissing at me. My kitchen gets covered with white foam, I have angry dead flies all over the floor, I'm afraid the neighbors may have seen this through the window and are at that moment calling the Department of Health and Human Services, and I'm absolutely positively so damn horrified and disgusted I want to cry and collapse into the dead fly foam.But I don't, why, because I am a mother, I have to do the right thing, every minute of every hour of every day, because someday... someday that's supposed to pay off. Someday, I'm gonna look back and say "It was all worth it". So I stop and look at the kids who are just starring at their crazy fly killing machine of a mother and I say, "Don't worry guys, now there's meat for dinner!"Don't get me started on what we now refer to as the "Henry Thoreau poetry practice Massacre". I've got a million of them.
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Lily Crisp
High Point, North Carolina, cashier at fast food
Hello,I am 69 years old and beset with arthritis, degenerative disc disorder, neuropathy, and fibromyalgia. I work at minimum wage at a fast food restaurant. My son lives with me. He is sevrely disabled and cannot work, yet cannot get disability either. Working just about puts me in the hospital every day. My feet and ankles swell up so badly that I can hardly walk. I don't know where to turn for help. I'm too old for disability, since I'm getting a very small SS check every month. I am miserable and hurting badly. I would love a suggestion or just a validation that I am not alone.Thanks,Lily
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Dick
, North Carolina, Stay at mommas house bum
I am 42 years old and have never worked a day in my life ....I have 7 kids that I have never seen and never want to . I would much rather be a bum than work $7.25/hour for 40hrs/week and support a family. Fuck that until my parents kick me out I will live here forever !
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ThaThugKidd
Hubert, North Carolina,
I deal drugs and never want to get a job EVER . I have a son and never want to work
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nate laso
yoloswag, 420blaze it,
roll it up,take a hit
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Haliee
, Georgia,
I'm 27 Years old, I'm a wife and a mother of four kids from 8 years old- 5 months. My husband was in the Army for 8 years and now that he is in the IRR we have went down hill ever since. My husband can't find a job that pays more that min. wage and is stuck working nights at Walmart. last year we had to file bankrupt and lost a house in the process now we live in a trailer park and can barely get by, he brings home 1100.00 per month and our bills are 1200.00 per month and that doens't count the cost of gas and other things. Its a everyday struggle and most nights end in tears. knowing that you cant provide for your family enough, that you can't give your kids new things and you don't even have enough gas to take them to the park now and then. we just sit here trapped in this metal box wondering how we are going to get by the next month and what bill isn't going to get payed or what meal can i make different out of beans and rice so my kids will stop complaining, and sometimes your kids get to eat but us parents have to skip meals meny times but that doesn't bother me that comes natural for me to take care of my kids before myself, i even make sure my husband eats since he works for us. When 8 oclock rolls around at night i tuck all my kids in kiss my husband goodbye and cry and pray just to make one more week. i take out everything out of the pantry and panic when i see only a few meals infront of me thats not enough to last until the next paycheck but somehow we make it and somehow my kids always have a full belly. I'm very thankful for what i have and i try my hardest to not let people or my family see the pain that engulfs me i try my hardest not to envy people i see that are smiling and going out to eat or going somewhere with there kids or walking out of the store with hundreds of dollars of food in there buggy. I guess in the end what matters is that we try, that makes me feel better anyways.I do realize that we are not the only families going through this, and it breaks my heart for anybody to have to go through the pain of being poor, especially when they have to work so hard for nothing. Families get torn apart...there has been meny times where me and my husband wanted to throw in the flag and give up on our relationship. we do love each other very much but the strain of living like this gets to be so much to bear. My story is no better then the ones on this site and my heart goes out to all who have to live like this especially when little kids are involved. All you can do is hope for the best, live one day at a time and just be thankful you have somewhere to lay your head down at night and a family who loves you. Live today like it is your last and never lose hope for you never know what tomorrow will bring.
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zoya kleshchevnikova
Girard, Pennsylvania,
It's really sad how TOUGH it is to even FIND a freaking min. wage job... I applied EVERYWHERE in my town...got an interview so far and got denied. They sent me an email saying how my availability is not what they are looking for.. when i clearly wrote I can work part time OR full time. any time they want me to, ANY hours.. I work at a store and get 4 HOURS A WEEK! thats not enough to pay for bills. I'm really struggling. and I cannot beleive that I got denied cuz of my availability?!?!?! the HR did not even TRY to negotiate hours or anything! just asked interview questions..... I dont understand..... =( I really don't want to do this... but I will have to end up working in a shop again full time until college starts =(. It's a bad place to work... but I have to pay the bills......and like some one mentioned.. Its totally understandable why people chose to sell drugs. becuase even min. wage full time doesnt pay the bills with food..this is why people STEAL too. I'll admit.... i have never stolen before cuz i have strong morals, but i certaintly have been really tempted... my first urge was when i was completely jobless and desperate to make ends meet... thats when i realized EXACTLY why people steal. Because IT"S SO HARD TO MAKE IT IN THIS SHITTY ECONOMY WHEN IT"S SO HARD TO EVEN GET A FREAKING LOW ASS JOB.
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Anonymous
Walla Walla, WA, Healthcare
I'm a 33 year old single woman with three college degrees and making just a little over minimum wage. Since graduating from college, I've never obtained a job where I've been able to live comfortably and not struggle. I can honestly say this is not how I envisioned my life, but make I make the best of it.On the very little I make, I am able to pay my basic bills: rent, gas, phone, electric and car payment and insurance. What's left after paying all that is very little and used to buy food for my pets, toiletries, pay for laundry and food. If I'm lucky, I might be able to buy $50.00 worth of food a month. In today's economy and with prices rising, that allows me to afford only the basics: milk, eggs, cheese, bread and sometimes boxed dinners. While I applaud state programs and the tax breaks that support single head of household woman/men and their families, I have to say, it'd be nice if additionally the state provided programs specifically for single woman/men that don't have a family, but are still living in poverty. My dreams are not of living in a mansion or making millions of dollars, my dreams are of having a home that's not run down and living in safety, of being able to go grocery shopping for food rather than picking up small basic items here and there, my dreams are of not living in poverty.
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