The concept of minimum wage speaks to society deciding that a person needs X amount of dollars to sustain themselves. In my state its 8 USD an hour. Multiply that by 40 hours a week and 50 weeks a year we come to $16,000 a year. Not a ton of money. I lived on an $8/hr wage for about a year and a half. I lived in a small apartment in a bad neighborhood. I didn’t have much discretionary income. I had to learn how to cook. While I wasn’t able to live the life of an international playboy, my needs were met.
Why is it that if I’m a single person its fine for me to work my ass off and get 16k? But, if I’m a single parent and my babymama/daddy makes 100k its a major problem for me to get less than thousands of dollars a month while having no job. And by major problem I mean if I don’t get that money, someone is getting locked the hell up.
I used Washington State’s Quick Child Support Estimator to get these figures for a single parent with no income, two middle schoolers, and a spouse that makes minimum wage and a spouse that makes 100k a year.
Min Wage Child Child Support: $548/month
100k Child Support: $2182/month
I’d guess in a bid to purchase votes with tax payer money, the state has decided that single parents (read single mothers) are better than everyone else. Logically, if one is able to raise a child on a mix $548/month, government benefits, and pay from employment, the extra $1638 in the latter number is bonus money. Maybe it goes to support the children, probably it goes to a mix of the children and custodial parent’s wants/needs, maybe it just goes to the custodial parent’s pocket.
A healthy state needs healthy families. Children of two parent homes spend less time in jail and pay more in taxes. The state should not be in the business of creating incentives to break families. $1500 a month, in this case, would provide one hell of an incentive. If minimum wage is ok for some, it should be ok for all. If you want more than that either get a job, or don’t become a single parent.
Here’s the kicker. If that mother custodial parent decides not to work she can easily be eligible for government benefits. And if you remember, the paying parent does work and will be paying taxes that contribute to those government benefits.
Here’s the double kicker. Everyone else, who didn’t have anything to do with conceiving those children, gets to pay taxes to contribute to to those government benefits too.
Its so profitable JK Rowling made the income she got for free from doing nothing but being a single mother part of her business plan.
Until we got chalimony laws reformed and some male birth control going…Wrap it Up Guys.
Apollo 21 