For a truly "living wage" what should the minimum wage be?

[WI_DEM]

Anybody have any idea?

[helderheid]

1. If the minimum wage had been raised to match inflation it would be $15 p/h

according to Kucinich

[jojo54]

5. He's about the only one that will say it like it is!!!!

Hurray for Kucinich. I wish he had gotten more support in '04.

[helderheid]

10. he had mine. :( Too bad he was "unelectable" (If I never hear that word

again it will be too soon).

[Selatius]

2. A "living wage" would easily be north of 10

The highest the minimum wage ever got was just over 8 dollars and change in the late 1960s when you adjust the figures for inflation. Since then, it has lost over 40 percent of its value.

[sweetheart]

3. What standard of human rights?

US? Higher? Lower? Then the wage changes.

[murray hill farm]

4. $15 plus an hour

and health care for all. Then min wage earners would still be poor, but at least they would have a chance..as it stands now, the only way is to have several wage earners in one household...and then maybe more than one job to just survive. Even that is a desparate survival...forget it is one gets sick.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. It would vary across the country

since rents are more in some cities than elsewhere, and so on. You also need to specify if this is a single person getting a living wage, 2 full time workers getting a living wage as a couple, a living wage for a family - if so with how many children, and so on. With no specification, I would assume you mean a living wage for a single person.

[gratuitous]

7. Depending on where a person lives

I'd say somewhere between $12 and $15 an hour would cover about 97% of the population. In some high cost of living areas, it should be $20 an hour or more.

[Roland99]

9. Exactly. One could get by on about $10-12/hr here.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

8. Around here

probably about nine or ten dollars an hour. Keep in mind, however, that I live in an area where the cost of living is low. I can get a relatively nice one bedroom apartment for $380 dollars a month. In most areas of the country I would say the minimum wage should be at least 13 dollars an hour.