The minimum wage in this country is set ridiculously low and no one making this little could have a hope for sustaining themselves without assistance or working multiple jobs. At $7.25 an hr. a person working full-time, 40 hrs/week would only be making $1160.00 a month before taxes. So let’s break that down. The tax rate for this amount of income is 12% which would be roughly $139. $1160-$139 = $1020. The average rent for a 1 br apartment in this country is around $1100 but let’s be generous and say this person got lucky and found a room for rent for $600. $1020-$600 = $420. On average, Americans spend about $20 a day on food between eating out and groceries. Again, let’s be generous and say this person is eating ramen every other meal and only spends $14/day. This averages out to about $427 a month. $420-$427 = $-7.00. So our minimum wage worker, after being extremely lucky in finding such a cheap place to stay and somehow coming in under budget on food cost is in the hole ($7.00). This is before calculating the cost of a vehicle $300/mo or public transportation $100-$150/mo. ($307.00) - ($107-$157), utilities $250/mo, ($557), gas $150 ($707). So, without accounting for entertainment, healthcare, cell phone, clothing etc., our hypothetical worker is in the hole $700 which should make it pretty clear that the minimum wage is not even close to a living wage. Adding in these other categories brings our monthly deficit to roughly -$1400/mo. which is more money in debt per month than is earned in wages. So essentially this person would be spending 162% of what they make. Income = $1160. Expenses = $2560. Income - expenses = deficit. $1160-$2560 = (-$1400). This was a guesstimate based on national averages of people’s monthly spending habits which I purposefully decreased in each category so the numbers were on the low end of average. And still, despite assuming this is the luckiest minimum wage worker in the country, they are still unable to afford basic needs and certainly can’t afford any quality of life.