Raise The Roof, Not Housing Costs

Number of minimum wage jobs required
to pay rent in areas of San Francisco.

The price of housing costs is rising and falling everyday, with some areas being cheaper than others. The drastic change in housing costs is most commonly occurring in San Francisco and New York. As of 2015, 870,000 of the 78.2 million people who were 16 years old and older that had a job received $7.25 per hour, making up 3.3% of the workers who receive hourly wages. That means that 3.3% is earning at or below minimum wage. But what about the workers who don't receive hourly rates? Yes, 3.3% may not seem like a large amount and it might not seem like a problem, but I believe that it's more of an issue than we realize. Say that one of these workers who earned minimum wage lived in San Francisco by themselves, meaning that they would have to pay for the rent themselves. The cost of living in San Francisco is growing rapidly. If someone simply wanted to rent a place instead of buy a place in San Francisco, they would have to take on more than one, possibly even more, full-time minimum wage jobs. In certain areas of San Francisco, some are required to have at least six or seven minimum wage paying jobs just to be able to pay their rent. That's not even including things such as groceries, clothes, or gas for their car. Yet some people think that this isn't an issue?



 The American in me wants to say that we should raise the minimum wage from about $8.00 per hour to somewhere around $10.00 per hour; however, the more logical side of me is saying that while that may help some people pay for expenses easier, it will just cause problems for other people who make more than minimum wage. The more a person makes, the more taxes they have to pay. The people who make the most money have to pay the most taxes and some of their money goes to the lazy people who just want to lay on the couch all day and have their money basically spoon-fed to them without work. I find myself sometimes guilty of being one of the lazy people who never wants to work, but at least I know when I can be lazy and when I can't be. I don't want to be stuck on welfare my whole life and I don't want a dead end job at McDonald's forever. I want a career so that I'll be able to take care of myself and not be a useless slob who doesn't work and lives in their parent's basement. Also, if the minimum wage is increased by a lot, then I feel like it will cause people to have less of an ambition of getting a real career. They might think, "Oh I can survive on this small minimum wage job, so forget pursuing a career". It's true that there are places where multiple minimum wage paying jobs are required just to survive. But if people are complaining that it's too much for them, then they need to move to a different area. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terri-ludwig/if-were-serious-about-tac_b_9618036.html