Somebody thinks this is news: "Minimum wage job will not pay for two bedroom apartment." Shocker !!! Here's another headline: "Only 3% of the work force earns a minimum wage."

In California, the minimum wage is $8.00 an hour and 13% of its work force earns that amount. [New York's minimum wage work force is 12.5% of the total working population].     Understand that the national workforce is 163 million strong [including California].  Only 5.5  million work for minimum wage or 4% of the total labor force.  Minimum wage was never designed to be a "living wage."  Jobs that pay minimum wage are "entry level jobs"  and are intended to be filled by the young,  the first time employee and the [very] unskilled.

Understand that a young married couple, working for minimum wage,  takes home close to $1,700 per month,  after taxes. School aged children get free breakfast and lunch, in most states, if such is needed.  The schooling,  itself, is free. In California,  where this editor lives,  there are free health clinics scattered throughout the state and most hospitals have ER facilities designed to receive the working poor.  ObamaCare,  contrary to what we are all being told,  will not end this situation.

The average annual wage is 39,300 per year or just under $19.00 per hour,  before taxes.  Two people earning the average wage,  make $79,000 per year.

We conclude that the wage scale is not the problem  --  getting and keeping a job is the larger issue.

ewr