Why are Americans struggling despite what could be considered a high median income per capita?

In the US we do not have guaranteed healthcare, sick days, medical prescription subsidies, maternity leave, or other worker protections that are expected in France. There are very little, and often no, rental controls or other fiscal controls on necessities.

In short, what you can buy in France with 2,000 euros is different from what I can buy in the states with $3,000 and there is no social safety net.

 What isn’t accounted for in your question is that while the median income may be around 40k in the US there are millions of people without employment and hundreds of thousands of people without housing and limited government subsidies for the survival of citizens.

 Solidarity, friend.

Edit: May 1 2028 UAW is leading a general strike. Organize your workplace, friends, and neighbors NOW to prepare.

You need your own transportation too, usually two functional cars to be able to work and get food, on top of everything else. 

I have friends in France that make very low wages on American standards,  but their quality of life seems much higher. Many of them custom built their houses,  but where I live they wouldn't afford owning. Americans usually list gross salary, not net. Health insurance varies on your employer,  but a family can easily cost more than 1k/mo.  The less you pay for insurance,  the more you'll pay when you need medical treatment.  We are talking hundreds to thousands for short trips to the hospital. I racked up 10k just having some diagnostics after an accident, nothing was actually broken or treated.  Then if you have kids,  you'll easily spend 1800/mo for child care until they are 5. If you want you child to go to college, you'll need to save significant money so they don't end up with 100k plus student loans. 

A quick trip to Google shows me that the average rent in France is 453 euros. In the US, the average rent is over 2000, while the cost of a house is half a million dollars.

Short answer: all those things that are considered just part of the social contract in most of the world, such as education, health care, elder care, etc. are run as private for-profit industries, which people have voted for since the 80s on the promise it would be more efficient than government management and ultimately more cost effective.

Shocking no one who understands the nature of for profit business, it is not a model that works well for providing necessary services (at least in a capitalist culture that expects infinite growth) because at a point growth requires cutting as many corners as possible in providing service while charging the maximum amount possible to the consumer, which is fine for goods and services people don't need to live and function in society but becomes a problem when it's a service that you can't realistically just opt out of.

Well, it's a classic case of expenses playing hide and seek with income. The cost of living keeps doing the limbo dance while income tries to catch up, leaving many folks in a financial limbo. It's like a never-ending game of financial musical chairs with not enough seats.

What I would ask back, is how much of your paycheck goes towards health insurance, rent, car payments, gas, and food.

I pay around $700 a month for health insurance for myself and my wife, another $300 pretax into a health savings account so that we can cover unexpected medical costs (or expected ones, really).  Housing costs approx $2,700 per month.  We have two vehicles (since you can’t walk anywhere), both of which have a monthly payment and an insurance cost so that’s another $900 per month.  Thankfully both of our vehicles are fuel efficient but there are plenty of folks who work construction or other jobs that require hauling things who have high gas costs.  Finally, food prices are very high and quality is very low in comparison to France. 

It’s bad over here, and that’s not a joke.  I’ve been to many European countries (loved France, btw) and all of them had a MUCH higher standard of living on lower wages than the US.  A lot of the folks who keep voting against things like socialized healthcare and public transportation have never left the country.  Some have never left their hometown.  They don’t realize how bad it is here because they’ve been told over and over that it’s “the best”.  Don’t fall into that American marketing ploy, it isn’t good here and it hasn’t been since like…the 90s. 

The spread between very high and very low income is much bigger in the US than in France. 

In France the minimum monthly wage is 1400€ after taxes and that includes a public healthcare system, five weeks of paid holiday and as many sick days as you are sick.

In the US the minimum wage is 1160 before taxes and without any paid leave even though they mostly get like 10 days a week. 

This means that the minimum in France is roughly 70% of the median. It's not pleasant but you get by. 

In America the minimum is a third of the median. Additionally there is only a very weak social net. 

If your try to participate in a society where you earn a third of the medium, life will be hard.

A lot of Americans spend well over 50% of their income on housing, that’s a huge part of it, decent wages mean nothing if they lag behind rent increases.

Beyond that per capita is a bit skewed given just how extreme the outliers are with the ultra wealthy in the us.

Personally I make around $30,000 per year working a retail job, and spend about $19,000 on rent so I’m really only living on about $800 a month, with healthcare, groceries, gas, and utilities eating up about half that or more.

It may also be a bit of "Gross Income" vs "Net Income"

Not everyone reports on the difference. Last year the money that eventually went into my bank account was about 60% of my "income". We have a bunch of payroll deductions for taxes, insurance, and retirement savings.

Whatever you’re paying for groceries, take-away, toilet paper, etc.., imagine the prices going up 20-40% in five years and your wages rising maybe 1-3% per year in the same time. Money is relative to prices and our corporate overlords used the guise of pandemic inflation to price-gouge the everliving fuck out of us. Our society is actively moving backwards as each generation is now dealing with a lower standard of living than the previous while 10,000 ultra-wealthy people will continuously horde more wealth like dragons waiting to be slain.

I always half an US-income in my head before I compare it to my own. I kinda treat it as a gross income because everything social security wise has to be paid from that.

How much does a banana cost anyways? 10 dollars?

As an American, I also have to pay for my own healthcare, education, and am taxed at approx. 27% of my income. Then there's the cost of living. I live in a very high COL area just outside of NYC. My 2 bedroom apartment costs me 3000 per month. I make approx. 60k per year and my partner makes approx. 80k per year and we struggle to save anything, cannot even consider buying a house (hah), never go on vacation, and occasionally have to live paycheck to paycheck.

Because they have to spend that high median income on things that people in other countries don't need to spend on at all, like healthcare (which also has massively inflated prices). Things like child and elder support which are subsidised in many Europen countries, Americans need to pay fully out of pocket for.

Plus there is a nationwide housing crisis in urban areas. Where the jobs are is where the houses cost a LOT to even rent. It's why it's not uncommon to see people complaining about how they only earn $100k a year. In any other country $100K a year would be a massive amount of money, but in the US if you're earning that much you probably live in somewhere like LA, San Fransisco, New York or some other big city, where your yearly rent for an average apartment will take up half of that.

There is also cultural differences to take into account for what "struggling" means, and monetary intelligence. Some people complain they're "struggling" because they can't afford to buy all the luxuries they think they should be able to have. Some people complain they're "struggling" and are "living paycheck to paycheck" because they spend all their money on things they don't need as soon as they get it.

That last point isn't US-centric though, it happens everywhere. It just stands out more as a reason when it looks like the person saying it earns way more money than you do, and your culture may not be as focused on consumption as the US.

We have higher than average income, but we have MUCH higher than average cost of living expenses.

Plus a huge percentage of millennials and younger have student loan debt they’ll never be able to fully pay off. The whole industry is predatory AF.

Edit: got RedditCared for this comment. Don’t abuse reports people.

Just another anecdote to throw on the pile - I am in Japan now but see many friends in the US needing to pay $1,000 to $2,000 a month PER KID for daycare. At a certain point, some mothers just give up working and become a SAHM because that’s cheaper on the whole. Meanwhile in Japan, if you have two working parents, your base childcare costs are free (you have to pay for subsides like lunch and stuff). Median income in Japan is similarly well below the US, especially now due to the crazy exchange rates. But people here seem to be living okay. Perhaps we have to cut down on imported foods or choose a less lavish vacation, but I’d say there are very few people worried about homelessness.

In America, people die from not being able to afford insulin. Like there is 0 safety net at all. And the victim blaming culture in America is out-of-this-world. Just listen to conservative radio for 5 minutes.

Probably cuz the cost of rent has fucking tripled

I am better off than most, but let's do the maths.

I bring home, after taxes, $900 a week or about $3600 a month

I own my own home. No Mortgage, but pay $675 a month in taxes on it.

I own my cars. An ancient Landy and a Fiat 500. Insurance on them is $281 a month

Grocery shopping for two is about $180 a week. or $720 a month

Cell phone for two phones is $202 a month.

Electricity is about $160 a month

Sewer/Water is $80 a month

Natural gas for heating: $200 in winter, nil in summer.

Fuel for my landy and fiat. is about $200 a month.

That leaves me with $1282 left over, provided the Landy does not need repairs and does not include things like registration fees on the cars and such.

That is with owning my home and cars outright. If I had a mortgage, I could kiss that $1282 goodbye. I do not live a lavish lifestyle. The landy is 21 years old, the fiat is 12. The house is a small rancher on an equally smaller spot of land.

I do live in New Jersey which is an expensive state to live in. Taxes are high, but we get a lot for them. Some areas are rather European with mass Transit, but not where I live. The other person living with me is my Elderly Mother who got completely screwed by my father during their time together, she brings in about $800 a month in Social Security, which is her's. It covers her car insurance and anything she wants. I do not ask her to contribute to keeping the house running.

Back up just a little bit. When an American says they make $80k per year, multiply it by between 0.65 and 0.75 to remove taxes that give us nearly zero safety nets, then subtract around $400-$500 per month for medical "insurance" that isn't really making healthcare affordable at all, then subtract whatever the employer deducts for a retirement pension, and, of course, the endless student loan repayments necessary to get a decent career, and that is the salary you get. I "make" $70k per year but barely reach $3.5k per month most months. It will be less when student loan collections garnishing resumes. Because we get paid every other week there are two months with a third paycheck, but throw that into annual car repairs because there is absolutely no reliable public transit and living close to work in an affordable home means living in a dangerous slum. 

Since the entire system from healthcare to transportation to anything you can think of just grabs as much money as they can through greed, it's pretty much destroyed the middle class. If you want to be middle class on a $70k salary, your partner better make the same, and you'll still probably experience major financial hardships that will set back any plans years. 

If I make too much money, my children lose their healthcare, but if I make too little, I can't afford to feed them. Catch-22

This question doesn’t even need to be asked at this point. This is the question that everyone has been asking for almost 15 years now. You know why. We all know why. Even making $90k is barely enough for comfort. We know what the problem is. And we know exactly how to fix it. That will take more than peaceful posts on the internet.

Prices are sky high cause of Corporate greed that's driving inflation

Hi there, and thanks for your question.

The answer is that the US is full of bureaucratic stupidity that we’re too entrenched in to fix.

We’re first in two major things in the world: percentage of citizens incarcerated, and military spending where we spend 40% of the world’s total military budget. We spend nearly $1 trillion annually on the two combined (nearly $900b and a little short of $90b, in case you’re curious).

France has one of the best healthcare systems in the world, and your taxes fund it. Here in the US, if you don’t have an employer, you don’t get insurance with the bulk discount. Families spend hundreds monthly out of pocket for healthcare even if they don’t use it. Almost uniformly there is resistance to change this even to our own benefit because it might mean more taxes… even if that’s less than what we would pay otherwise for our insurance.

We largely lack effective public transportation, and where it does work it’s only local to the city that has it. Working generally requires private transportation, and with it a whole new set of bills - car payments, car insurance, fuel, maintenance…

Speaking of interest, the prime rate for France has an all-time high of 4.75 percent according to what I looked up, but has a current rate around 2.5-2.75%. The current prime US rate is above 5%, but has an all-time high of 20%.

I’m not going to bother with looking at food expenses right now, but the short answer is that we have an absolutely dumb amount of secondary burden attached to our paychecks.

We pay out at least $10k a year in healthcare, every single year, sometimes more.

Inflation is completely insane.

Housing is completely insane.

Post-secondary education will easily run you at least $10k a year, which you have to pay for at some point.

Basically, our complete and total failure to govern in our best interest is killing us slowly. The financial situation is just one symptom.

My rent was more than your average monthly income.

I make $20/hr in a low cost of living state, I'm actually doing good by the standards of people around here. I have 2 kids, rent is $1000/month. Car payment is $450/month. Health insurance is about $600/month... And then of course the cost of clothing and feeding my kids. So yeah I'm fucking broke

Americans “make more” than people In other countries but not in real terms. Food, housing and healthcare prices are all dramatically/artificially inflated here. My partner went to college in the Netherlands and did a year of high school in Germany. Apparently, groceries in Europe are far cheaper and their food/consumer safety standards are stricter. Remember that next time some libertarian dullard blames “muh regulation” for high prices on anything. We literally pay more for toxified food. America is a massive lie and a huge Rip off. 

Also that is for the whole of the US. If you crank the numbers down by state that is another story. Especialy in the rustbelt and similar areas. California and new york are at the top list. The median in Iowa or Ohio ist lower again.

Ignorance is fine, you don't know what you don't know.

Our cost of living is huge. Just living in general is expensive, high rent (often more than the recommended 1/3 of your monthly income lately), food is expensive especially if you don't want to eat just junk, then there are utilities such as electricity, gas if you use that, water, garbage removal, sewer, I'm not certain which of these you have to pay for individually, if any. Here how these services are run and need to be paid for vary by region, occasionally by city or even by building. Then internet, cable if you use it, phone, and of course your daily necessities of life. So all of that can be managed, but often comes up close to your monthly income, but it can vary and you can choose some of that to the best of your ability by being as picky as you can about where you live. But then on top of it, any doctors visit is a charge. Dentist, charge. Even if you have insurance, which you are paying for monthly btw IF you have it (right now most everyone has it since it was a government requirement for you to have it recently), you often have a co-pay you have to pay until you've paid a minimum amount for the year. And that is just for normal visits, a hospital visit can land a family in real trouble financially.

It feels like only a few years ago most people who were in financial debt it was usually from spending a lot on credit cards or too much money buying a car, occasionally it was from a serious medical issue that needed hospitalization. Now it feels like it is from needing to eat food and buy gas for a car you don't even own. And more and more it feels like corporations don't want us to own anything we buy. You lease cars, pay mortgage forever on your house or rent, buy appliances that are going to break as soon as the warranty expires so you have to replace them. Denim pants that used to last a few decades with daily wear rip after a few months of light use. It feels like our lives are being used to create trash, and that is all the use we have to these corporations. How depressing a thought is that.

Anyway, we used to pride ourselves and each other that the US was where other nations people wanted to be, everyone wanted to come here to live. Now I couldn't imagine why, I wish I could move countries, honestly.

Living in the US is a money pit. Where many European countries have universal healthcare, generous medical leaves and PTO, the US does not. While we may make more financially, our economy does a great job of bleeding us dry. Childcare costs more than a mortgage, healthcare is astronomical, healthy food costs an arm and leg, and let’s not even talk about housing, inflation, and general costs to live!

The gross median wage in Sweden is ~38k $…something like 30 k$ net…

I don’t think that’s terrible and I think quality of life is better than 40k$ gross in the USA…

The biggest difference is if you have a good salary…my marginal tax rate is 54% which really does make me think about the effort I’m willing to put in to work (maybe a good thing)…

We have to go out of pocket for literally everything because the U.S. is terrible at taking care of its people.

Everything in the states is twice as expensive. Food, housing, transportation. You name it, it costs more here. Except healthcare. That costs thousands. Need a prescription? Be prepared to hand over $100 for one package of medication. And that’s WITH a health insurance plan.

Over $48,000 a year of my salary goes towards rent and utilities. Prices are sky high in grocery stores right now. I have a putt-putt car that I'll need to replace soon because execs are forcing RTO and I live 2 hours from work. I will have to pay for that car and the gas, we don't get gas reimbursement. Gas is over $5 a gallon. I didn't get a raise this year. Inflation is up, so I'm making less than I made last year. If I crack a tooth or experience any health issues, I will have to choose between taking care of my health or possibly becoming homeless. My insurance comes out of my paycheck. In reality I receive half of what I make "on paper."

it's really rough right now.

I don’t care about the average, as it probably doesn’t mean anything

Nice pun

• Terrible public transportation (car basically required)
• Terrible health care - very high average out of pocket costs
• High real estate prices in places with good jobs
• The good jobs require college education - which is super expensive here. Lots of people have massive student loans

Because somewhere along the way, we let the powers that be decide that we aren't entitled to anything such as healthcare, basic human needs or even the water we drink without paying for it and those costs have made it crippling to be anything but healthy, young and single in this country.

The real reason is the US government doesn't work for the good of the people. We don't have much a safety net, particularly in healthcare. If you lose your job and get sick you're going bankrupt. The real owners of America are those who those who can't be named or criticized.

Everything's too expensive to fix until it's condition has deteriorated even further for a good few years. Of course now you need even more money to fix the problem. And since you're saving to fix that problem you can't afford maintenance on other things which are probably shit cuz you probably had to get something cheap and shitty, or if it's health related, it may be caused and or exacerbated because everything here is shit. The food, the water, the fire season, forcing people to work too much, too hard, and or in unsafe conditions. Mosquito fogging, other harmful chemicals.... It's everywhere. It's everything. Everything here is shit. And its worse on Indigenous reservations. So unless you grew up with a fat wallet, this is what youre born into. How could you ever escape poverty like this? Not to mention all the reasons others have commented.

It really depends on the cost of living in each area, ya know? How much does a typical starter home cost? What about vehicle purchase? Groceries? MEDICAL EXPENSES?? Education?

I dont know anyone making 40+ a hour, unless they are in tech in Cali. To an American outside of the tech bubble that sounds preposterous to hear the average is making that. It feels closer to 15-23$ a hour for anything not salary. Shit most service jobs are still at 11 to 13 a hour in the midwest. Not to mention even salary you would have to get lucky for 40$ a hour. Maybe I'm just been jaded, but OP I swear most people are not even making 40, try 20 dollars a hour. Like teachers barely get paid 20.

I make 80k per year. After tax, that’s about ~58k per year, or $4,800 per month.

After deductions for healthcare and 401k I’m at about $4,200.

Monthly expenses are as follows:

• Rent (apartment shared with my partner, we pay 50% each): $1500
• Utilities (my half): $100
• Internet (my half): $35
• Car + gas: $335
• Student loan payment: $400
• Phone: $40
• Streaming services: $50
• Groceries (my half): $200
• Household supplies (my half): usually around $100
• Gym: $30
• Incidentals: $100

That leaves me with about $1350 left over. I dump whatever I can into a high yield savings account.

This is a frugal month, but even so, I’m not personally struggling. I can afford luxuries like streaming services and gym membership.s.

If I were living in my own without a partner however, I ABSOLUTELY would be struggling. Rent in my city for a 1b goes for about $2.8k/month on average, which is well over half of my post-tax salary. Having someone to split bills with is huge.

Also, I don’t have children. There’s no way I could afford a child on my salary, and even on my partner and I’s combined salaries, we would barely scrape by. We’d need at least one more bedroom, and childcare costs can be thousands per month, like a second rent payment. Plus their healthcare, food, activities, clothes, saving for college…no way in hell could I afford that, even if my salary doubled.

As others have said, there aren't really caps on prices for necessities. Healthcare is extremely expensive, with and without insurance. Rent can be extraordinarily high, and buying is often not even attainable. Public transport is unreliable or simply doesn't really exist in many places, so having a car is often a necessity (and if you have a partner who's work schedule doesn't align with yours, that's a second car needed). Add on that there's really no guarantees for paid sick leave, maternity/paternity leave, vacation time, or really much of any other worker rights protections.

Tldr: Your money can stretch a lot farther in many European countries than it can in America, so even though Americans make more, they still can't afford a lot of necessities.

As a personal anecdote, my husband and I are Americans that moved to Germany. We both worked full time in America. When we moved to Germany, he took a 20% pay cut and I didn't work at first (I think we were making roughly half of what we did in the US), and despite that we still had a lot more disposable income than in America. Like, triple or more that we could save or use as fun money. Living in America is fuckng expensive.

Most ostensibly free markets are actually functionally cartels that self-regulate their prices as high as humanly possible. Data science has enabled these business practices to rapidly outpace regulations that protect consumers. The cumulative effect is that higher wages are more than eaten up by higher prices and current generations enjoy less spending and saving power.

High income is only high income if your entire paycheck isn’t going to rent/mortgage/utilities/food.

Those numbers mean nothing because you'll have one billionaire in a run-down City who basically controls everything that throws off the average. Most of us are basically slaves. We live paycheck to paycheck. We make just enough to be able to afford rent and food to be able to go to and from work with just enough money for minor distractions like video games or a movie on the one day a week we have off. If we get ill we lose our jobs then we lose our healthcare and that's it.

There’s a housing shortage, leading to extremely expensive real estate prices / rental costs in population centers.

I feel like you’re confusing net with gross. I gross about 42k a year but I’m only bringing home about 2.2k a month after taxes/insurance/401k

I live in Ohio which is a low cost of living state. If you made 40k a year, you’ll just barely be getting by.

`High income.

Higher cost of living.

I will probably never make that much money. I make $17 an hour and can't really afford to learn another trade with the time and money I don't have.

From personal experience...it hasn't been until these past maybe three years that things have gone well for me. Before that, I was being underpaid, this made me get more in debt and/or not payoff as much.

Why was I in debt? Several things happened and didn't and so on. I don't take expensive trips to Europe (have never been) or buy clothes and shoes and all that stuff (I buy from stores like Ross, Target, and Walmart mostly).

Also, finally I have someone that can help me with expenses, so, again, it's gonna take some time to level off.

Well I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, a small bag of flour costs 17 fucking dollars. I have to eat gluten free, and over here we don't get any sort of subsidization, tax write offs, food stamps, or anything like that, for having a food allergy. Companies are allowed to price hike the shit out of any allergy-friendly food, even staples like flour. So...that's why. Eating is expensive, even when you make all your own meals.

dude u guys have like free childcare.

childcare here is $2K a month minimum lmao

I'm probably ignorant too, but I also live in France and am currently visiting a friend in New York. We've also been to New Orleans. It's expensive here! Maybe it's different outside of the big cities, but I wasn't expecting basic necessities to cost 2 or 3 times what they cost in France.

High median income doesn't count for much with a very high cost of living.

I’m american living in paris and was once offered a job in dallas texas. I did some estimates of what my savings would look like. Once you count needing to pay medical insurance, cost of living difference, needing a car because there is very little public transport, needing to save for retirement, I found that to have the same lifestyle and save similar amounts, you need about 60% more in the US. So in the end the 100k usd salary is more like a 60k salary in france. You will be comfortable but not wealthy.

I don’t know the answer, but I make $30 an hour in PDX, with a wife and 2 kids. One income family. We are getting by, but just.

Inequality and high cost of living.

Medical Bills wipe out more people than I’d ever imagined in this Country, it can literally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for a serious medical issue, and a lot of people don’t have ANY medical insurance or coverage.

Do you want any American immigrants in France? Get me outta here man

Edit: spelling

because 40k can be a single month's medical bills.

The median family income in my area is about $120,000. After income taxes, that leaves about $80,000, or just over $6,600 per month. Median rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $3,200. That leaves $3,400 per month to cover literally every other expense.

MIT says the average living expenses of my area, not including any savings of any kind but accounting for taxes, adds up to $110,000 if you have one child and nearly $150,000 if you have two. Basically every last penny goes to simply living, or you are just constantly getting deeper and deeper into debt.

Welcome to America.

There are not “a lot” of people earning 70-100k/yr, barely over 20% of individual U.S. workers make over 70k/yr, and only barely over 5% make over 100k/yr. Social media skews how many people you think there are making 6 figures especially. Going on instagram influencer pages will make you think it’s almost trivial to make that much now, while nearly 95% of folks in reality do not.

Meanwhile one HALF make 30k/yr or less. Income inequality is wildly bad in the U.S. right now.

Overall, yes sure, it could be worse, and us Americans are lucky to make more on average than a sizable number of other countries. But the income inequality issues are still very much an issue and need addressing.

Because profit greed exploded faster than wages

Because in the US, the income is pre tax income and is people’s entire income. 

All services have to be paid with that income.

In France, people’s income is actually higher than what their pay stubs suggest as there are some employee cotisations and employer cotisations (which are usually almost equivalent to the employee’s salary).

These cotisations are used to pay for services that Americans have to pay for themselves. In essence, in France, people’s actual income (in terms of money and services you get for that money), is closer to 3000/4000 euros per month, which as far as I can tell is actually higher than what Americans have to pay for services.

By services, I am talking about decently funded public education (comparatively to the US), mostly free public healthcare, good common transportation (in France you can get around using common transportation, which is close to impossible in the US, forcing people to buy a car), etc

Add on top of that that the French government regulates healthcare prices which means that even when buying medication that’s not covered under public health insurance, you still pay a fraction of the cost that Americans pay. The presence of free education also means that private schools still have to have lower prices in order to attract students.

France also provides a decent retirement (not saying it’s great, but most people can decently survive and have some fun) which isn’t the case in the US. Same for employment insurance, and minimum payments for people ineligible for employment insurance and unable to work (like the RSA), etc.

All in all, France provides A LOT more services than the US does, which means you get a LOT more bang for your buck.

40k a year in America is low class income. Middle class income in America is 80k. Cost of living is very high in America, we dont get free healthcare either and if you get hurt you'll be paying off a medical bill for the rest of your life because our healthcare industry is all about greed.

When you hear $40,000 income this is pre tax income. We pay around 30% in taxes out of checks, plus insurance premiums (you wouldn’t believe the amount if I told you), retirement etc. so when you hear $40,000 a year its actually $28,000 take home or roughly your $2000 amount give or take a hundred. I make around $70000 a year as a teacher, sounds great right well well minus $21,000 in taxes. Leave you with $49,000. Let’s call that around $4000 a month. Nice try deduct $450 a month for my family health insurance plan. Another $450 month for union dues and retirement. Now we are at $3100 a month. Got kids in daycare? I do. That we cost around $250 a week. We are at $2100 now. Need a house? Looking at a mortgage of at least $1500 a month. A car? $450ish. Car insurance? $200 a month. Food? Good luck. What about the electric gas bill? Oh boy the kids need clothes or a doctors visit. My co pay is $50 a visit. Let’s not forget property taxes of $6000 a year. I think you get my point. Providing basic needs are extremely expensive here. Now you can see how a two income household maybe could make things work. But there’s not a ton leftover.

Easy answer: Peg the minimum wage to inflation and let the bosses explain to their highly skilled workers why they are making minimum wage or just over.