Minimum Wage Case Study

As a sixteen-year old high school student, one worked for minimum wage at McDonalds. The difference between one’s story and the countless stories of many is the level of responsibility with a low-wage job. According to Macionis (2012), fifteen “percent of heads of poor families worked full time, at least fifty weeks during the year, yet remained below the poverty line” (p. 36). In other words, hard work alone will not help the poor. As a result, a hypothetical monthly household budget for a family of three was created based on making minimum wage, paying for household expenses, and giving the family the opportunity for upward social mobility.
A monthly household budget was created for a family of a young married couple in their mid-twenties, with a six-years-old child, living in Middlesex County, New Jersey. One of the parents works locally full time, forty hours per week, at a minimum wage job, while the other parent stays at home to handle house responsibilities, takes care of the child before and after school, etc. The working parent makes the New Jersey’s minimum wage of $8.38 per hour; therefore, grossing an average wage of $1,396.67 per month over a span of fifty weeks per year (Department of Labor …, n.d.). Due to low …show more content…
Unfortunately, anthropologist Oscar Lewis conducted studies in poor communities and concluded that a culture of poverty is the reason why neighborhoods remain poor from generation to generation (Macionis, 2012). Culture of poverty refers to “cultural patterns that make poverty a way of life” (Macionis, 2012, p. 43). That is, people adapt to being poor and do not have the aspiration for a better life (Macionis, 2012). As a result, it was very important to include college grants and expenses to the monthly household budget and assume that both parents attend Centenary College on alternate nights and/or via online studies