Since I ride the bus to work I frequently have conversation with other travelers going into little rock for work, this last week I sat next to a single mother of four, widowed 2 years ago, who was fretting over her expense budget. See she had gone to school and recently got a full time job as a medical coder and was very proud that she was going to be coming off of welfare. She would be earning 15 dollars an hour, more money than she had made in a very long time. And too much money for her to continue getting any assistance. So when I asked her why she was so nervous she said well, Im probably going to have to get a second job or pray for overtime to make ends meet. And I thought to myself..how is this possible, 15 dollars an hour isnt a horrible wage. so I did some number crunching her take home pay after taxes is 2055.04 expenses are: Rent-500 water-100 electricity-200 bus pass-37.00 health insurance-300.00 gas-75.00 average groceries for a family of four..lets say 500 now two of her children are school age, two of them need day care. prior to her husband dying she was a stay at home mother. Without the costs of day care factored in and the fact that she has a car but cannot afford the insurance or to drive it, her expenses stand at 1712.00 roughly. And yet with an education, and a job above minium wage she cannot make it. At the end of the month she will have 343 dollars left to pay for any incidentals, personal care items or to replace shoes or clothing for her children. She does get some money from SS for her children, but that money will only cover day care for the younger two kids, roughly 800 a month. America we have a serious problem in our country when people making over min. wage cannot afford to make it if they have a family. Now sure she can go to food banks for help with groceries, and Im sure that she will get some help along the way. She can shop at goodwill for clothes and clip coupons, and dare I say it here in the south..choose not to turn her AC on in the summer. It just saddens me that we have people in this country who refuse to believe we have a class of working poor people. Here is a person who did what she needed to do, is makeing twice the minmum wage and still has anxiety about getting off of public assistance. And her bills are not extraordinary. We are not talking here about a women living an extravagant life. She is very reasonable and realistic about what she can afford. I just wish that in one of the richest countries in the world we could pay people a wage that was decent, because people deserve it. I believe if you own a successful business you should have the nice things that you worked hard for, but those nice things shouldnt come at the expense of the people making you successful. I know my conservative friends are rolling thier eyes right now. thats okay. I just wanted to tell this ladies story and put some perspective on what people consider a decent wage..because money sure doesnt go as far as it used to. Please pray for this brave lady, who has overcome so much at the age of 29. Pray that she will be blessed for her efforts.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 20:26:41 +0000
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