In the US, states and cities have their own minimum wages, keyed to the
local cost of living – but every one of these minimum wages is
insufficient to provide that most basic of needs: a roof over your head.
It’s the nexus of the crazy, private-equity-fuelled
skyrocketing cost of housing and decades of Big Business-fuelled wage
stagnation that has seen American workers’ pay stalled even as companies
became more profitable and GDP grew.
Even a $15/hour minimum wage would not allow a single parent to afford
an apartment with a separate bedroom for their child or children in most
of America (Arkansas has the lowest rents in the country, and even
there you need to earn $13.88 to afford a two-bedroom apartment).
Even a one-bedroom apartment is out of reach for minimum wage workers in almost all of America.
