Our definition of being poor differs with each person and their experiences. Taylor works as a high school english teacher during the day and a dental assistant by night. She makes $1064 a week teaching and $663 at the dentist office. She is raising her family of four on $2600 a month. This isn’t a lot of money to Taylor considering she has to take care of her kids and pay taxes and all of her bills. She comes home exhausted every day and still has to worry if she has any money left to buy food for her family. Her husband, Mark, works as a car mechanic who makes $420 a week and barely sees his wife. Taylor and Mark have strived to follow the “American Dream” for the 15 years that they have been married and still haven’t made it. We try to
…show more content…
The average minimum wage for almost all states is $7.25, $290 a week if, assuming you work 40 hours a week, which is $1,160 a month, and $14,500 a year. This salary alone does not cover for the costs of gas, food, living, electricity, medical bills, car insurance, water, phone bills, taxes, and the list goes on. 68 percent of young adults are the main wage earners in their families, which also leads to an insane amount of stress added on by their education and need to support themself and their family. In “Below the Line: Poverty in America”, Michael Linger writes that the cycle of help from the government “might be more than who qualifies for food stamps but shows that the way people typically think poverty doesn’t help anyone stop being poor.” In “Millennials Turn Up Heat Against Low Wages” the story states that workers who try to increase sometimes don’t always get the increased pay that they would like. As a result, they work 2-3 jobs to support their families and now think of themselves as extremely poor. In PBS NewsHour’s “Suburb in Wealthy Illinois County Sees Unexpected Rise In Poverty” facts are states that “poverty in DuPage County has grown by 185 percent. Nearly 60,000 people here live in poverty… earning $22,350 a year for a family of four”. We look at the numbers that define poor and ignore the mentality of those who define themselves as this barrier between really moving
The average minimum wage for almost all states is $7.25, $290 a week if, assuming you work 40 hours a week, which is $1,160 a month, and $14,500 a year. This salary alone does not cover for the costs of gas, food, living, electricity, medical bills, car insurance, water, phone bills, taxes, and the list goes on. 68 percent of young adults are the main wage earners in their families, which also leads to an insane amount of stress added on by their education and need to support themself and their family. In “Below the Line: Poverty in America”, Michael Linger writes that the cycle of help from the government “might be more than who qualifies for food stamps but shows that the way people typically think poverty doesn’t help anyone stop being poor.” In “Millennials Turn Up Heat Against Low Wages” the story states that workers who try to increase sometimes don’t always get the increased pay that they would like. As a result, they work 2-3 jobs to support their families and now think of themselves as extremely poor. In PBS NewsHour’s “Suburb in Wealthy Illinois County Sees Unexpected Rise In Poverty” facts are states that “poverty in DuPage County has grown by 185 percent. Nearly 60,000 people here live in poverty… earning $22,350 a year for a family of four”. We look at the numbers that define poor and ignore the mentality of those who define themselves as this barrier between really moving