What Living on an $11 Minimum Wage Looks Like | The Motley Fool (2024)

FAQs

Is $11 an hour good money? ›

We've identified 10 cities where the typical salary for a 11 Hour job is above the national average. Topping the list is San Francisco, CA, with San Jose, CA and Vallejo, CA close behind in the second and third positions.

In 2022, 1.3 percent of workers in the United States were paid hourly rates at or below the official minimum wage. This is a decrease from the previous year, when 1.4 percent of workers were paid at or below the official minimum wage.

But can someone actually live on $11 an hour? In some markets, the answer is yes, but in many parts of the country, $11 is simply not enough to provide basic needs such as housing, food, clothing, and healthcare. Wal-Mart has raised its minimum hourly wage to $11, effective February. Image source: Wal-Mart.

$11 hourly is how much per week? If you make $11 per hour, your Weekly salary would be $440. This result is obtained by multiplying your base salary by the amount of hours, week, and months you work in a year, assuming you work 40 hours a week.

$15.19 is the 25th percentile. Wages below this are outliers. $23.94 is the 75th percentile.

Key Findings. On average, an individual needs $96,500 for sustainable comfort in a major U.S. city. This includes being able to pay off debt and invest for the future.

To live “comfortably” as a single person in 99 of the largest U.S. metro areas, you'll need a median income of $93,933, according to a recent SmartAsset analysis.

The federal minimum wage for nonexempt employees in the United States is $7.25 as of 2024. It's meant to be a living wage but this isn't the case in practice. The hourly rate hasn't kept up with the cost of living since 1970. The earnings of a minimum wage worker with a family of four fall well below the poverty line.

An individual needs $96,500, on average, to live comfortably in a major U.S. city. That figure is even higher for families, who need to earn an average combined income of about $235,000 to support two adults and two children.

What state has the lowest living wage? ›

South Dakota has the lowest living wage for individuals, requiring $13.87 an hour, or $28,853 a year. The state's housing costs are among the lowest in the nation, setting an individual back $6,784 a year. A family of four with two working parents will spend $9,639 a year on housing and $15,000 on childcare.

“Most of us can't do the math in our heads. If we could, we'd realize that $15 an hour amounts to only $31,200 a year, assuming full-time work—about half of the U.S. median income and a painfully small amount for living and raising children in most American cities.” It can be painfully small outside of cities, too.

A family of four needs to earn at least $106,903 a year to cover their necessities in most U.S. states, a recent SmartAsset study reveals. The findings are based on cost estimates for housing, child care, transportation, health care, taxes and other common expenses, as tracked by the MIT Living Wage calculator.

So, an £11 an hour rate would see you earn £22,880 a year, based on a 40-hour working week in a a full-time job, including paid holiday. If you're paid once every two weeks, your paycheck would be £953.33, with a weekly salary of £440. If you're paid per day, this works out to £88.

A good hourly wage will depend on your age, skill level, and location, but you should be earning at least $10 an hour if you're working in the service industry. However, keep in mind that an hourly wage of $10 is below the national average.

$100 An Hour Salary in California. $277,300 is the 25th percentile. Salaries below this are outliers. $394,761 is the 90th percentile.