Hacker News Reader

Comment by janalsncm | Hacker News Reader

I really don’t like unemployment as a metric. If the US economy was a product and I was the product owner for it, it would be the last indicator to check. Underemployment is a much bigger issue since a barista with a PhD counts as employment, but from the user perspective (people living in the economy) there’s not much difference between full time minimum wage work in a HCOL area and not working.

View on HN

Full time minimum wage work is probably netting you close to 40k in high cost of living areas these days. It’s not nothing.

When “low-income” starts at 100k, though, 40k might feel very close to nothing.

40k affords your $1600/mo rent at least. Having housing covered is not nothing.

Rent in HCOL areas is more than 1600 a month. I live in a college town, hardly HCOL, and 1600 a month will get you a small apartment here.

Looking online, median rent in the US for all housing types is over 2k.

Well chances are people making 40k aren't renting a unit that leaves them with only a thousand a month leftover. They are probably living in that small apartment or with roomates or a significant other, the latter case halves the rent wherever you live for a 1br for example.

Yes but you also have taxes, car payments, gas, and food. It also wouldn't be uncommon for rent to be more that $1600 a month.

Edit: To give an idea. According to Google, in New York at $40k a year you will pay $12,000 in taxes. So after taxes and $1600 a month in rent you would only have about $733 a month for transportation, food, entertainment, clothes, savings, etc.

Chances are if that is your spread you have roommates. No one on 40k is renting that 5k manhattan apartment. They are probably out in queens or somesuch. Craigslist says average rent for a 1br in queens is around $2k a month. So if these earners have a roommate or a significant other, they are paying like $1k a month on rent even with the base rent higher than $1600/mo.

Can't you hide your income if you are getting paid hourly at a minimum wage shop? It would be better to receive cash only, under these circumstances.

It’s probably not a great sign if the path to financial stability involves illegal activity.

In large cities like NYC, landlords require an annual salary of 40 times the monthly rent.

That means your $1600/mo rent landlord will not accept applicants making under $64k.

Which is better - working 40 hrs a week and barely existing, or not working 40 hrs a week and barely existing?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com