Question of the Day: What percent of workers in your state earn less than $15 per hour?
Find out how your state compares.
Answer: Answers will vary (click here)
Questions:
- What is the starting wage for teen part-time jobs in your community?
- The percentage of workers earning less than $15/hour ranges from 14.2% (Washington) to 45.3% (Mississippi). What do you think are the factors that impact this statistic?
- $15 an hour equates to about $30,000 per year for a full-time (40 hours per week) job. How much do you think you need to earn to live comfortably in your area?
Behind the numbers (Oxfam):
The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour for 13 years. That‘s $290 a week or $15,000 a year. And millions of workers–domestic caregivers, farmworkers, student workers, tipped wage workers, workers with disabilities–are not even entitled to $7.25 per hour.
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Have your students create a salary-based budget with this NGPF activity.
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Check out all of NGPF's events and resources for Financial Literacy month.
About the Author
Tim Ranzetta
Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.
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