(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Working people are so screwed: Rents spike and minimum wage hits its lowest value since 1956 [1]
['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2022-08-01
On the rent-is-too-damn-high front, “Across the country, rents rose 18% between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. These rent increases have been widespread: out of 345 metropolitan counties, all but two have seen a rise in rental prices since 2021.” Those increases have hammered people who were barely making it month to month, already paying well over the 30% of income considered affordable for housing. Some interviewed in the NLIHC report are now paying 80% of their household income to remain housed.
Nationally, more than 40% of people are not paid enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment, and nearly 60% are not paid enough to afford a two-bedroom apartment.
The burden of high housing costs falls disproportionately on Black and Latino renters, the report notes: “White workers at the bottom of the white income distribution earn over one dollar more per hour than Black and Latino workers at the bottom of their respective income distributions. Among Black workers, a Black person at the 20th percentile of wages earns $2.30 less per hour than a white worker at the same percentile. A Latino worker at the 20th percentile of wages earns $2.05 less than a white worker at the same percentile.”
On the pay-is-too-damn-low front, the minimum wage, which has not increased since 2009, is now worth less than at any time since 1956. The Economic Policy Institute’s Dave Kamper put that in context:
x EPI’s @dskamper brings us back to 1956, when the minimum wage was worth just as little. pic.twitter.com/i2GOrNb1kG — Economic Policy Institute (@EconomicPolicy) July 18, 2022
The United States must invest in affordable housing and rental assistance. It must increase the minimum wage—even in the states where it’s currently the highest. And that means Republicans cannot be allowed to keep standing in the way.
We need democracy warriors to help people exercise their right to vote this November. Sign up to be a poll worker at Power the Polls.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/1/2113867/-Working-people-are-so-screwed-Rents-spike-and-minimum-wage-hits-its-lowest-value-since-1956
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
