Keep on working for the minimum

I didn’t imagine that when I graduated college I would still be fighting and hoping for a decent minimum wage, but I am. I think about it daily, because I actually can’t imagine what life would be like without significant financial struggles.

I’ll admit it: I’m one of America’s poor. I’m not one of America’s poorest, but I’m not in the position to save more than a few dollars every month, if any dollars at all.

I have some light college debt, but those loan payments still eliminate potential savings. An oil change can and did make a difference to my ability to buy anyone Christmas presents, even after saving extra. I had to save and sacrifice in order to get my license plates changed, but I couldn’t put it off anymore. It sucks, and that’s that. I hate it. I plan all my bills so that I settle my balances right as I get paid, I plan very carefully and get “creative” with food, and somehow at the end of the month I end up with no money for nearly a week.

Nearly all of my smart, educated friends are in a similar situation because debt and obstacles far outweigh opportunities. It’s always been hard to make something of yourself, but even when your wages are technically not poverty wages, you still struggle to eat in the face of all the payments you have to make. In my experience as a member of this generation which some older folks consider poor planners, whiny, spoiled and entitled, I have to say it’s a toxic mix of many things that are beyond our control. Sure, it’s not all of us that are suffering, but it’s a lot of us.

The education system may be the biggest problem we face. In order to get any kind of decent job in most parts of America, you need a college degree and some kind of magical 1-2 years of experience in that field (even for an entry level position). I applied to over 100 jobs after college. The only official offers I got were the Saratoga Sun and an AmeriCorps position, which pays just at the poverty limit.

You can get that experience while in college or before your first job, actually, which is only possible with the unending support of your parents so you can take unpaid internships. It continues this cyclical problem of class fixture, that the offspring of the well-off and generous get the best positions. I had more from my parents than a lot of other students, and I’m still really struggling. By struggling, I mean that I have more financial fear than hopes that it will ever get better, because statistically I have no reason to assume that it gets better.

Certain positions pay pretty well off the bat with a four-year degree, but we obviously can’t have a world full of those positions only. There are, of course, other anecdotal situations, but most folks I know that just recently graduated are struggling pretty hard. Usually it’s politics, familial wealth and generosity and nepotism that make the biggest difference, like it’s always been.

These futile efforts were not the case for a long time: until the past 10 years or so, a college degree wasn’t required for a job that will support a family. Without total support from your parents, which most kids don’t have, we enter our adult lives with mandatory debt.

I know it’s always been hard starting out in the world, but it’s especially hard for people that grew up in my generation, the first modern generation to have less financial success than our parents. By no means do I want anyone to feel bad for me, or anyone my age that can’t make the bills unless it’s by illness or tragedy. Just understand that we can’t start families, save up for homes or cars, go on vacations, or even seem to have a day off of constant financial stress.

People see this in every generation, but we have an extra bill in order to get a good job—our student loans, which are basically required for our education that is required for a good job. Today, 22 percent of those with only a high school diploma are living in poverty, compared with 7 percent in 1979, according to the Pew Research Center. Most of the time I’m just happy that I’m not living in poverty, but when you look at the numbers (the poverty threshold in the continental United States is just under $12,000) it’s amazing that anyone is allowed to live at that level, just thinking about what things cost.

The average cost for tuition alone at a public, four-year university in the US was $17,474, having risen 39 percent since 2002, and rising year after year. I’ve read time after time that my generation is the first modern generation to be poorer than our parents. By all estimates, it doesn’t appear that it will get any easier; I’ve been hearing since I was a kid that I would be paying enormous amounts in social security to support the large baby boomer generation.

I feel badly complaining about money and how it’s hard to be young because most folks I know can point to a time that they struggled when they were my age, college educated or not. The difference now is that hard work doesn’t pay off anymore, not like it used to. The cases of people with their head above water seem to me to be more extraordinary than it should be.

According to the Center for Economics and Policy Research (CEPR), the minimum wage should be $21.72 if it had increased with worker productivity. This number uses 1968 as a benchmark, when minimum wage was the most valuable. CEPR estimated minimum wage rates based on average increases in productivity. Further, the matter of inflation makes it harder to live off of low wages. Sure, the minimum wage should be a motivator to go to college, but wages don’t go up enough after college to justify the price of loans. It doesn’t add up.

The problem has passed the line of reasonable hard work. Wyoming is not the national average on this: the median household income in this state is the 13th highest in the United States. Wyoming has only a slightly higher cost of living than other states: the cost of living index is 104, compared to a national average of 100.

Normally I have no reason to even mention my finances, because my problems are my problems. Maybe I’m grumpy about the holidays and feeling badly that I can’t get the presents I’d like to for those close to me or I’ve had enough hearing about how all we need to learn is to hard work or budgeting. That’s just not the case anymore. If the generation as a whole wants to have a comfortable future, there has to be major economic changes in addition to continued hard work and sacrifice. Until then, don’t worry about the overall character of my generation so much. We’ll figure it out. We have to.