Surviving (or Not) on Minimum Wage

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5441487&page=1

Today's 70-cent Jump in the Minimum Wage Is Still Not Enough, Say Workers

By MARCUS BARAM
July 24, 2008

The country's lowest-paid workers will get raises today as the federal minimum wage increases 12 percent, or 70 cents, from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour.



But that's still not enough to pay the bills, say some members of the working class, including many who already earn more than the minimum wage.

Barbara Stepney, a 57-year-old grandmother in Baltimore, makes $7.15 an hour working in the laundry of a Comfort Inn. She says she can't afford health insurance, a car, or her own apartment.

"I'm slowly getting by," says Stepney, who contributes $350 to her sister's monthly rent. The rest of her paycheck goes to buying groceries, at $25 to $100 a week.

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Although she's close to retirement age, Stepney says she's about to take a second job, just so she can afford clothes, but even then, health insurance remains prohibitively expensive for someone her age.

"It's not enough money to make ends meet," she despairs. "I do the best I can – taking the bus, using coupons, but this ain't living."

Antonio Clemens, 31, who makes about $7.85 an hour at the Memphis Music Café, can't afford health insurance and is unable to save money in between paying $685 a month in rent on the apartment he shares with his wife and their two young children.

FULL story at link.