About Fight For A Living Wage

LIVING WAGE: A living wage is a level of income that provides adequate coverage for basic necessities - Food, Shelter, Medicine, Childcare, and Education and the ability to Save. The living wage standard allows for no more than 30% to be spent on rent or a mortgage and is sufficiently higher than the poverty level.

While a $15 minimum wage is significantly higher than the current Federal Minimum wage of $7.25 it does not provide an adequate income to sustain a living wage in most major metropolitan areas in the United States. (2023 poverty level for a single person is $14,580. Current Federal minimum wage for a full-time worker is just under $15,000 and just above the poverty level for a single person)

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75 percent of Americans say they would eat healthier if they could afford it.
Low-income Americans would have to spend 40 percent or more of their food budget on fruits and vegetables to meet U.S. recommended daily allowance.
U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates 54.4 million Americans do not have access to healthy food.
41.9 million Americans or 12.5 percent of U.S. population use food stamps.
25 percent of Americans report being food insecure during a year.

Food

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Shelter

65 percent of Americans own/buy their homes while approximately 35 percent rent.
Median household wealth among homeowners is 3,965 percent higher than renters.
Homeowners average monthly costs are 16 percent higher than a renter but they are accumulating wealth as they build equity in their home.
Homeowners also get further benefits through tax deduction for mortgage interest while a renter gets zero deductions.
Higher home prices and now higher mortgage rates make the dream of home ownership a much harder reach for many Americans.
U.S. home ownership rate remains at the low end of developed countries.

U.S. has the highest per capita spend on healthcare and highest spend as a percentage of GDP of any developed country.
While spending the most on healthcare we have the second lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rate of any developed nation.
The poorest fifth of Americans spend 18% of their household income on healthcare while the richest fifth spend 3 percent on healthcare.
50% of personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by a medical bill.
75% of Americans filing bankruptcy due to a medical bill did have health insurance.
50% of Americans say that they skip a test or recommended treatment by their Doctor as they can’t afford it.
50% of Americans says a medical bill of $500 or more would put them into debt or bankruptcy.
U.S. highest rate of mental health diagnosis in adults of any developed country.
US highest reported rate of emotional distress over safety, food, and housing of any developed country.
Only around 50% of private/individual mental health providers (Therapists and Psychiatrist) take health insurance.

Medicine

America is the worst of the developed countries in the world for the investment and support of early childhood development.
The richest countries spend on average $14,000 per child on early childhood development while the U.S. spends $500.
U.S. only major developed country that does not provide or mandate parental leave.
Average cost of a full year of private childcare in the U.S. is $9,600.

Childcare

U.S. used to boast we had the best education system in the world. Current U.S. ranks are as follows:
- 18th in reading
- 36th in math
- 22nd in science
Like healthcare U.S. spends more per capita on education than any other country while our scores and graduation rates are near the bottom.
Cost of an undergraduate degree in the U.S. is up 169 percent since1980.
Average teacher pay is 5th amongst the developed countries.
1 in 4 teachers are thinking about quitting in the next 2 years.
45 million or 2 percent of American’s carry an average of $38,000 in student loan debt.
Backlash against high school track learning in the ‘80s led to decreased investment in vocational training and the trades.

Education

Savings

The average American saves 4.3% of their income.
Average return on a savings account 0.42%.
Lower income Americans often excluded from higher yielding investment vehicles due to minimum balance requirements.
Average rate of savings for major European countries is 15% versus 4.3% in U.S.