Minimum SS check is $725. Medicare Part B is $100. Social Security minimum take home is only $625 per month! $625 divided by 160 hours (40/week) = $3.90 per hour.
Millions of Americans were forced into early retirement because of the Housing Crisis slash economic meltdown. Many people over 55 were not rehired. Ageism exists. The forced early retirment cut the minimum SS check for these innocent workers by approximately $300 a month.
And women, who were poorly paid for most of the 20th Century, are hugely more apt to fall into the minimum SS check category regardles of when they retire.
Why The Minimum Wage Is A Women’s Issue, In Three Charts
1. Two-thirds of minimum wage earners are women
2. Families benefit from a wage increase. Sixty percent of women are the primary or co-bread winners in their households
3. Over 17 million women would benefit.
Doesn't this ring true for retired women, too?
If we weren't married for 10 years to a wage earner, we don't qualify for 'his' SS benefits. Millions of women are headed into poverty once their savings are depleted. It's a catastrophy in the making.
While we are talking about minimum wage, can we talk about increasing the minimum Social Security check? Prices on everything are sky rocketing. The elderly relying on Social Security need a big jump in their minimum wage, too!
And lots of us are helping our kids keep food on their tables, care for their kids so they can work, and go without to do so. We can't say NO to the grandkids so our life-savings will more than likely be spent before we die.
Some compassion for Seniors please, especially retired women receiving only $625 ($725 less $100 to pay for Medicare Part B) a month to live on from Social Security?
These 12 Charts Show HOW Trickle-Down Fails, Gross Income Inequality, and WHY You feel pinched
Pictures speak a thousand words. Listen to what these charts/pictures are saying. But first, this quote from that screaming liberal, William F. Buckley
“Conservatives pride themselves on resisting change, which is as it should be. But intelligent deference to tradition and stability can evolve into intellectual sloth and moral fanaticism, as when conservatives simply decline to look up from dogma because the effort to raise their heads and reconsider is too great.”
I love this quote. So, what do the charts have to say about Trickle-Down, Income Inequality, and your financial pickle?
Where did all the money go?
Again, where did all the money go?
Although this chart only goes to 2005, you can see where the money went. Into the pockets of insatiably greedy CEOs
By 2011, the CEOs benefited with even greater gains DURING the Great Recession:
NOT SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION HAVE WORKERS BEEN THIS EXPLOITED while the rich get richer. Corporate profits are also at a 60 year high!
Here's the truth about median income in America as of 2009:
US Workers are mostly living hand-to-mouth these days. Don't feel badly if you are, too. It's the new American norm, the USA is becoming one of the worst Income Inequality countries in the western world, and you should be feeling a tad upset about being bilked!
75% earn less than $42,000
50% earn less than $26,000
40% earn less than $20,000
The Median Income in the USA is only $26,000 a year.
Why does it feel like your pay check doesn't go far enough?
Why does it feel like everything but your check is rising.
They are!
Prices for everything are rising.
Rents Rise as More Americans Flock Back Into Cities
Nationally, rents were up 4.6 percent, even as home values have skidded along near 2003 levels.
The cost for child care is exceeding the costs of rent:
In the past year, consumer food prices have increased 4.4% Food prices will continue to increase in 2013
Health Insurance Premium costs 2002 - 2012
College tuition has risen 4.8%
Why is meat getting so expensive? The cost of hay has gone way up
Lastly, many here are over age 50. Have you noticed that wages seem to peak at age 50? Is this Brookings Institute chart an indication of ageism?
Speaking of aging. The charts above make a good case for increasing the lowest Social Security amount from a little over $700 a month for the millions of us FORCED INO EARLY RETIREMENT IN 2007/08 due to Wall Street malfeasance and layoffs/NO JOBS FOR OLDER WORKERS. No one can live on $700 a month and many in the USA have only SSI to live on.
So, if you are feeling a little more pinched than usual, I hope the charts help explain why and that you are not all alone. There is a lot of shared suffering these days, unless you are in the higher tax brackets, and even they are complaining.
You see, the GOP has lied for decades in their quest to kill unions, public education, and our social safety nets.
Finally, we have proof. The IMF, CRS, and CBPP agree.
You can find the nitty, gritty details here
PROOF: GOP Deficit Hawks Lie - IMF, CRS & CPBB FINALLY Agree. See Charts