Share Your Story: Have you ever lived on minimum wage?

Share Your Story

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

Ashley

Dallas, TX, Barista

I'm a 25 year old woman from a tiny town in northeast Texas. I earned my Associate's degree on scholarship but could only find jobs as a waitress or as a mental health tech for minimum wage, no benefits. I moved to Tyler, TX for better opportunities, but I still could only find a waitressing job. I developed fibromyalgia and was forced to quit my job because I had taken two medical leaves of absence and they were tired of having to cover my shifts. (Illegal, I know, but what was I to do?) I subsequently lost my apartment and had to move back in with my father. A year later my sister and I moved here to Dallas for better work/educational opportunities, but since I have the brkoen lease on my record from the lost apartment and since she has a felony on her record (stupid teenage days...) we are unable to get an apartment. We live in a slummy hotel, barely 300sg feet if THAT, full of prostitutes and drug dealers and gang bangers. The place has been robbed once since we've lived there and I can't count how many times I've heard gunshots or how many times the police have come (sometimes in droves of six cars or more). My sister and I work fulltime, she for minimum wage with tips at a salon and me at Starbucks as a barista. I want to go back to school but at this point I don't make enough money to even afford the cheapest community college in Dallas. I applied for student aid but never recieved it (they had their heads so far up their asses they couldn't even explain to me what the holdup was). This is ridiculous. I was told growing up that as long as I studied and did well in school and worked hard I could be whatever I wanted to be. I want to be a virologist for the CDC. But how? How can I when the only job I could find (which I do love, by the way) doesn't pay enough to allow me to go the the cheapest commnity college in the city? Is this still America? What the hell happened?

Michelle Knight

Atlanta, Georgia, Security Officer

Let me start by saying I mean no offense to anyone, other than those who should rightly be offended! We live in the supposed Most prosperous country in the world yet we have, the highest ratio of hard-working, WORKING-POOR people in our country. My Family & I have struggled for some time to survive from pay-check to pay-check and I used to wonder why! My eyes have been opened to the truth & facts that we also live in an Extremely bigoted/racist/Mysoginistic/Classist society, which means we live in a society of pure fools, { It takes each and every one of Us being able to "LIVE", not merely Survive, for our society to thrive!!!!!}, who believe and will barter/buy/sell/trade/steal/or kill to keep Certain people and Peoples in positions of Excellent Health, Out-Standing Education & Financial Prosperity to the detriment of the rest of Us. My Daughters & I spent years where I worked so much I hardly ever got to spend time with me Children, because 1 Full-time minimum wage job was NOT going to cut it {and I was able-bodied & minded so, Welfare was not an option for Us!}. I struggled and fought my way through school to receive an Asssociates Degree { while enduring a physical disability for part of that 2yrs. that I would later find was permanent & being a victim of Domestic Violence/Spousal Abuse}, so I could get a better job & provide for my Family without becoming yet another burden on the backs of others like me who were willing to and did work! There were times that Our diet consisted of Ramen Noodles for Our 3 meals a day and possibly a bologna sandwich {which I would often forgo to ensure that my Children would have another meal}. We were in protective custody of the state at one point with no vehicle and had to walk approx. 7 miles to & from the grocery store when we did finally start getting food stamps to help out. We have had to make Our way through me losing a job because I couldn't afford to get back and forth to work, which created to the usual snowball effect: lost job, lost home, lost belongings, lost hope, lost Our voices. We have come a long way in a very short period of time, only to have my Daughters now facing the dilemnas of terribly/sickeningly low wages & very high costs for any & everything they need {along with my Grandchildren}. I always tried to continue to believe that if I worked hard, I would see the Fruits of my efforts & I taught my Daughters the same thing, unfortunately the world & life are doing ALL they can to teach them the complete opposite, {If you do what is good/right/correct/honest/ & ehtical, Not only will you work yourself to death, but it will bee for nothing, because lying/stealing/cheating/deceiving/ & pure unadulterated Evil seem to run Our societies/Our World now! So, to answer the question in the simplest way, "What it takes to live on Minimum Wage, rather How do you live on Minimum Wage?"
YOU DON'T "LIVE" ON OR OFF OF MINIMUM WAGES, YOU EXIST, STRUGGLING FOR EVER SINGLE CRUMB THAT GRACIOUSLY FALLS YOUR WAY, YOU KEEP FIGHTING AGAINST EVERY ODD THAT REARS IT'S HEAD HOPING AGAINST HOPE THAT THINGS WILL GET BETTER SO YOU CAN KEEP GOING - SO THAT YOU CAN EXPECT SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR YOUR CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN, YOU LEARN TO PUT PRAYERS IN PLACE OF THE DOLLARS YOU DON'T HAVE AND HOPE THAT SOMEONE ELSE OUT THERE WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH, YOU LEARN TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF THE LEAST, YOU RECOGNIZE THAT NECESSITY IS INDEED THE MOTHER OF INVENTION, YOU PUT FEARS/SHAME/PRIDE/ & JUDGEMENT ALL IN THEIR PLACES, AND YOU STRIKE OUT MOVING FORWARD THE VERY BEST CAN!!!!!

TO EACH & EVERY ONE OF MY FELLOW-MINIMUM-WAGE-MAKERS {THEN AND/OR NOW}, PLEASE REMEMBER " OFTEN IN LIFE YOU HAVE TO HAVE BEEN A FIGHTER TO BECOME A SURVIVOR, YOU HAVE TO HAVE BEEN A SURVIVOR TO BECOME "A CONQUEROR!!!", IT'S WHEN YOU BECOME A "CONQUEROR" YOU HAVE TRULY BEGUN TO "LIVE"!!!!!!!!!!"

TO ALL: BECOME YOUR OWN "CONQUEROR", LIVE YOUR LIVES TO THE FULLEST & BEST OF YOUR ABILITIES & BE BLESSED!!!!!

Alana Cotten

, NC,

I deserve great pay just like men.

Pe er Gatliff

Lawton, Oklahoma, Retired/Disabled

After I lost my wife and my railroad career within a 36 month period and with 2 sons ages 7 and 11 to raise. It was rough living on low wages. But what saved my 2 sons and I from starving and living in the streets was our SSI due to my sons being minors. Now the GOP wants to destroy this program. My sons and worked as a team. They would read the newspapers for weddings and pick up cans and bottles on weekends at 5 cents a pop. I mowed lawns and worked on campus while going to school full time at a local college. But we made it. My sons upon leaving home for the military took me out on Mothers Day. After our lunch I was given a Mothers Day Card and a white cake in blue letters. "Happy Mothers Day Dad." In the card, "Happy Mothers Day.Dad. Mom would be proud".

Angelina Cisneros

Los Angeles, CA, full itme student

Is this a joke? Are we trying to convince the masses, or should I say policy makers, that it is impossible to live on minimum wage? It is common sense to me. Let's look at the cost of housing in a major metropolitan area such as Los Angeles. I am currently paying just over $1,000 for a 2 bedroom in a crime ridden neighborhood in which the landlord is a slumlord and am subjected to vermin, pervasive plumbing problems (busted pipes where water gushes due to corrosion) and the occassional vandalism or robbery. Minimum wage in California is $8.25 x 40 hours (most service employers consider 35 hours full time and will penalize employees for working "overtime") = $330. In a 4 week month pre-tax earnings = $1,320. If I claim exempt from federal taxes, which is a right to individuals earning below the poverty level, and after I pay my rent I am left with roughly $320. There is not enough for groceries unless I apply and am granted food stamps. That would help but what about childcare for my kids who are not old enough to go to school. I've heard there are government programs that help subsidize the cost but there is always a waiting list. Say a spot opens up and I am qualified to receive subsidized childcare, that is great. I am now left with $320 to pay for electricity, gas, phone (if I absolutely must have one) transportation to and from work and to and from daycare. If I rarely turn on the lights, don't do much cooking especially baking which uses a lot of gas and only use the heater in extreme weather, I can keep my utility bills to an average of $20 each. If I do have a landline and only make local calls I can keep my phone bill in the range. I am now left with $260 for the month. Depending on whether I have a car, the size of the tank and how I have to drive to a job (this is LA afterall), I can squeeze a gas bill of $20 a week. Left over is $180 for the month or $45 for the week for incidentals such as dish soap, toilet paper, laundry detergent, money for the laundrymat, soap, shampoo, clothes, medicine for fevers....did anyone notice any mention of a TV cause that would be a luxury I could not afford.

Michael Williams

Burbank, CA, Self Employed

I am a man. I have been a single parent, raising three (a son and two daughters) since 1998. I have been relativey fortunate, along with my family. I worked and made a decent wage. Being male, I do not take any of that for granted. Women earn a fraction of what men earn doing the same or highly similar work. I will say this, the cost of living has done nothing other than rise, relentlessly, over the last five decades. Wages and earnings of everyone other than those on the upper tiers of wages and earners have stagnated or fallen but not risen in real dollars for over two decades. I can or could author flow charts, excel spread sheets, pie charts, bar charts, mounds of documentation and paper that clearly reflect and graphically illustrate the economics and fiscal data to support the contentions and premises that I offer here, in this forum. It is impossible to survive in this nation on minimum wage. There is no having a family or owning basic property (I am not talking about a home or a car, I am refering to the basics) if one is working for or living on minimum wage. Minimum wage does not provide earnings sufficient for basic subsistance. Rent, utilities, transportation, food and clothing will overwhelm the earnings long before the individual might ever gain control of their fiscal lives. There is no need to even introduce the specter of "credit" for a number of reasons, none of which I need to enumerate. To think or believe that minimum wage is sufficient livable earnings for anyone other than perhaps a young person going to school and living with parents is delusional.

Teresa Padilla

Summerfield, Florida, unemployed

I was a single Mom with two boys in the mid 80's . Sole support of my family. We lived in a one bedroom apt. I worked at K-Mart for about $ 6.50 an hour. We ate maccaroni and cheese a lot. Washed our clothes in the sink. I rode a bike to work , as there was no bus service where I lived. We brought our groceries home on our bikes. We had to put non- food items on layaway, until we could pay for them.Had some medical, but no dental from my job. We lived this way for quite awhile. I've lived with boyfriends and been married several times. I was able to go to school with a student loan, which took a long time to pay back.. Then, I could only find one job in that vocation that lasted about two years it's very hard to get by as a simgle parent, or just plain single, when you have a limited education and income. I've had many ups and downs since then and I can tell you it's no fun being almost destitute. Now, I am unemployed with health problems and can't find a job or get health insurance..I have to go to a special clinic that goes by your income. If the government closes that down, I'll have no healthcare. If it wasn't for my fiance, and the good Lord above I'd be on the street and destitute.

Lori

Rockton, IL, school crossing guard

I worked fulltime for minimum wage in the early 80's. It wasn't easy to get by on it, I had no phone, no cable, no health insurance, sick leave, or vacation. But I could go out every few months to Wendy's for dinner, buy the occasional book to read, or see a movie once in a while. No way could I do even dream of doing that now with those same wages.I have worked as a school crossing guard for the past 10 years. The pay is by the day but works out to equal fulltime for minimum wage. Why do I work this job? Because jobs are still very scarce in my area, especially if you had to quit college to work so you could keep a roof over your head and you're middleaged. It's the first job I've had in over 30 years that has managed to survive a recession. Thank God I have no dependants. To get by now on what I earn I: do without heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, shower in the dark, turn on NO lights at night, tv watching is restricted to 2 hours a day, I read library books by sunlight only, clothing is washed (cold water only) and then air dried, haven't seen a doctor or dentist in over a decade, no cable tv, no phone, no computer, no going out to eat or see a movie, no going out for much of anything else either. I walk everywhere I possibly can since gas, oil, and insurance for the car is so expensive (it's almost 20 years old BTW) and there is no bus service here, not to mention the car repair bill I'm still trying to pay down. Sometimes I have to choose whether to buy toothpaste or toilet paper. The foodstamps I get are my entire food budget. (Yes, I am one of "those" people yet I work!). After paying rent (HUD), utilities, car insurance, and the c.c. payment there is nothing left over. I'm wearing clothing I've had for at least 15-18 years (patched), hand-me-down shoes and underwear, or clothing I've made with recycled fabric I get free here and there. I am grateful my mom taught me to sew (and gave me a sewing machine) and my grandmother taught me to crochet (I use yarn I find for free or cheap at garage sales). Those skills are the only reason I still have clothing, bedding, and winter gear such as hats, scarves, and mittens. My furniture is over 30 years old, some came off the curb before the garbageman could get it.I fear the budget cuts that are coming to HUD, foodstamps, Medicaid (as a single childless person I don't qualify for it in my state), Energy Assistance, job training. I will be on the street with nowhere to go. I can't cut anymore from my budget, it's cut past the bone already.My nephew is essentially homeless and working two part time jobs. He hitchhiked literally across the country coast to coast to look for work after graduation to find nothing out there. He can't pay his student loans, and can't get it refinanced for a lower rate unless he can somehow come up with over $4,000 to get it current. I fear for his future as much as I do mine. I was told when I was a kid that if I worked hard I could get ahead and succeed. The world doesn't work like that anymore.

Trina Sonnenberg

Nucla, Colorado, author

Back in the 90's, I was a single mother of a two-year-old boy. I was recently divorced and worked full time making $6.00/hr. Because of my employment, I made too much money to qualify for any government subsidies. I had to live in a slum because that was all I could afford and to keep food on the table, I had to get a second job as a waitress.I could not afford day care for my son, so I had to rely on relatives to look after my boy while I worked. I started work every day at 5 A.M. and most days I wouldn't finish working until 11 P.M. I had one day off per week to spend with my son.I lived in a neighborhood where a 14 year-old kid was shot and killed over drugs. I would find drug paraphernalia in the laundry room of my apartment building, and I was the only person in the complex with a job. Everyone else was living better than my son and I and they didn't work. That made me a bit bitter to say the least.My son had problems with his ears and the insurance I paid $26.00 a week for only paid 80% of the bills he accrued. I was always broke, but I was determined to make it. And, I did make it, but not on minimum wage. I eventually found a better paying job, but it still wasn't enough to pay for raising a child. At that point I was paying $164.00 a month for after school care. Even at $17,000 per year I was barely making it.When my son was age 7, I remarried and that was the end of my turmoil because my husband made a decent living as a contractor. Then the housing bubble burst and his work went away. Now we are living pay check to pay check, hoping for a better day.Now my husband works as a licensed water treatment plant operator, but his employer will only let him work 20 hours per week. The employer has not been effected by the economy, yet they claim my husband cannot work more than 20 hours because of the economy. Water is a constant need and the rates being charged for it don't change with the rest of the economy.I have been a stay-at-home mom for the last 15 years and now hat I can work outside the home there are no jobs to be had. No one seems to value women who stay at home to raise their kids. Believe me, it is more stressful to stay at home than it is to earn a pay check.Stay-at-home-moms have a household to run, children to look after and care for and school responsibilities to take care of. Then there are the doctor appointments and dental visits and homework.We don't get paid for any of it, yet we are busier than most people and we still pay taxes.Being a woman in the 21st century should be easier, not more difficult than it was in the 20th century, but it is more difficult.I worked for more than 20 years before becoming a stay-at-home-mom, but if I were to become disabled, I couldn't get SSDI because I haven't punched a time clock in the last 15 years. I paid into the system for more than 20 years, but that doesn't matter.We have lost a house and are down to sharing one old vehicle (1980). The vehicle thing is difficult since we live more than 100 miles away from everything that most people take for granted. For example, I have to drive 100 miles to go to Wal-Mart, or the hospital. I had to be the ambulance that took my youngest son to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. If I had driven like a normal person, my son would have died because I made an otherwise two hour drive in one hour. Mind you, that there are no straight roads between here and there.Women can do incredible things. Through all of the stress of knowing that my son needed emergency surgery and I was responsible for getting him to the hospital, I got him there in the nick of time. His appendix was ready to burst. I never imagined that I would need to drive 75 mph through winding canyons, but I did it. My son is alive today because I did it.My children are now 22 and 14 years of age.

Christine Fluet

Columbia, Connecticut, Homemaker/Companion

I am a college-educated woman who stopped working to raise my two children. Now that I've gone back to the job market, I am currently working with the elderly for $8.75 per hour. At my job, there is no money taken out of my paycheck for taxes, since the majority of workers don't earn enough to even pay taxes. Thankfully, my husband works. After working every hour that I could get last year (of course this is a part-time only job), my entire earnings was $8,400.00. One year at $8.75 per hour, part-time. Since my husband worked, my tax payment was $4,200.00. That's right, half my earnings. After deducting gas, and wear and tear on my car, a 1996 Montero, I realized that my actual pay per hour was $1.67. That's right, $1.67. I've since cut back on my hours, only working 10 per week while I try to find a higher paying job. When will there be higher paying jobs that a woman is qualified for? Where I live, the only jobs in the employment pages are for drivers and auto mechanics. I'm looking and looking. How could a single mother live on this salary?

Share Your Story: Have you ever lived on minimum wage?