I have no idea how people who work minimum wage or just above minimum wage get by.
$5.15. an hour * 40 hours per week= $206-7.65% Social Security/Medicare tax - 15% federal withholding = $159.24 take home pay per week
Monthly take home pay = $636.96
Where I live, the lowest rent you could possibly find would be about $450-$600 for a studio apartment. If you have a roommate, you can find a decent 2-bedroom for about $1,000 (not counting utilities)/month. And how do you buy food and find transportation? And what about health insurance?
Again, I have no idea how these people get by. The minimum wage is woefully inadequate and should be raised to about $7.50 an hour over the next 3-4 years.
I am not a "living wage" advocate, but the minimum wage needs to be raised ASAP.
You rather over calculated the amount of Federal income tax. A single person making the minimum wage will after the standard deductions and the Earned Income Tax Credit owe $152 in Federal income tax or about 1.5% not 15%. However, you left out other various other taxes, such as State income tax, that are applicable. $170/week for a representative take home pay. At that level of income, you likely are looking for a roommate to share a one bedroom or even a studio apartment. It would be cramped, but doable, or perhaps you'd prefer a mobile home. Anyway getting one's housing costs down to below $500/month is doable, if not exactly comfortable. (And I am including utilities there, at least for South Carolina.) Transportation, clothing, etc. all have costs too, but there's enough there to pay for the basics It would be a rather spartan existance, but it is possible to live on minimum wage.
The major area of worry would be health care costs. The working poor really get shafted there. A single person earning the minimum wage makes enough to not be eligible for Medicaid in South Carolina. They likely will not be able to afford insurance, and our current system causes the uninsured to be left with higher medical costs than the insured, as the insurance companies use their clout to get discounts that the uninsured cannot.
The problem therefore is not the minimum wage, but health care reform to bridge the gap between those eligible for Medicaid and those able to afford private health insurance.
