Quote Originally Posted by Eric C. View Post
Well, I wouldn't say, of course, it's totally impossible to find incomes less than $30 an hour among the Americans, but I think it's quite rare. You're talking about terrible things, could you at least specify the kind of job those people have? Where the salaries are so incredibly small that people can't even pay for their bills...
The minimum wage is not a statistical average, it’s a legal limit set by the federal government to ensure that workers (presumably citizens and legal residents) don’t get paid less than that, and $7.50 is an accurate figure in 2011.

Throughout my college years I worked as a cashier on weekends in a large supermarket chain. I started at $7 per hour in 1997 and after several raises and promotions, was making $10 per hour in 2001, the year I graduated. A friend of mine was making about $100 a day waiting tables in a restaurant. Back then $35,000 is considered a good starting annual salary for a college graduate with a bachelor degree in accounting. This was GROSS income, of course. About 25% of it went to federal, state and social security tax, so the take-home pay was about $14 an hour.

Here’s a list of minimum wage in 2011 by state:

List of U.S. minimum wages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And a list by occupation:

Minimum wage in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As you can see, things have not improved much from 10 years ago for the low-wage earners, except that many of them had to work less hours during the recession. I honestly don’t know how they can pay their bills (or not). I can do some research but I’m afraid to. Their after-tax income might be a little higher than their gross income because of all the tax credits they can claim. But still, the monthly rent (not including utility, etc) for a small apartment in Atlanta costs at least $700; gasoline is at $4 a gallon now; a loaf of bread with decent amount of nutrient costs $3…