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Starting January 1, 2012, San Francisco will have the highest minimum wage for hourly employees
in the nation, rising to $10.24. According to the Associated Press, it's "more than $2
above the California minimum wage and nearly $3 more than the working wage set by the federal
government."
Restaurant workers, retail cashiers and the like will all see a bump in their paychecks
thanks to a voter approved proposition back in 2003 that links the city's minimum wage
to inflation.
Regardless of whether you're pro-labor or pro-business, one things is for sure. Making
minimum wage still won't get you very far in San Francisco these days. Listen to this.
Working under the new minimum wage rates, you would pull in a $1,638 and change each
month before taxes based on a 40-hour workweek. With the average 1 bedroom apartment in San
Francisco renting for $1,885 according to RentJungle, you couldn't even afford an apartment
of your own. Finding roommates will probably your only option.
Compare this to a more affordable location like Minneapolis, where the cost of living
is much lower. Their minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and will get you $1,160 a month.
A 1-bedroom apartment rents for $821 a month on average, meaning you could actually afford
an apartment on your own while being paid minimum wage.
And stepping back for a second, we're only talking about housing here. We haven't even
taken into consideration taxes, food, health care, transportation, loans and debt.
We could sit here and talk about affordable housing, living wages and such, but there's
a more basic lesson to be learned. A $10 minimum wage is not enough for some San Franciscans
to even put a roof over their heads. That would require at least a $12 minimum wage...and
counting.
It's expensive to live in a big city oftentimes. Until cities like San Francisco put together
a comprehensive plan to help make their cost of living more affordable, more headline grabbing
stories like these will be published.
I'm Bobby Lee with 2 Minute Finance, thanks for watching.