The Cost of Living Increases While Pay Wages Remain the Same

Lately people reminisce about how much things use to cost. Most baby boomers will say that they never thought that the price of gas would ever get to be as much as $1.00 per gallon. Then there are must have household items such as: eggs, milk, and bread that have definitely increased in price over the years. In America, the cost of living is constantly increasing but pay wages are remaining the same.

Being a baby buster, it is hard to accept how some things cost in this day in time. A few years ago, the value of a dollar could be stretched out a little more. The cost of living has skyrocketed over the past 25 years. It is strange that the minimum wage has changed once in the last three decades. The minimum wage use to be $3.35 an hour until it was increased in 1997 to $5.15 an hour. In July of 2009 The Fair Labor Standards Act increased the minimum wage again to $7.25 an hour. If a person works 40 hours, a week at these wages it still places them close to the poverty level. Although it seems impossible to live on an annual income of $24,000 or less, yet some people are able to survive. Difficult economic times have forced people to get by with what they have. People cannot afford to live above their means. It is amazing that years ago a man/woman could feed a family of four on a menial salary and still was able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

One would think that considering the fact that the cost of living does not seem to be leveling out but instead still seems to increase that every working American could some type of income adjustment to offset the costs. Now in some cases the geography does have a bearing on the cost of living but it is not hard to see that people are now just working to pay bills; nobody has any extra money for miscellaneous events that may come up.

As long as the cost of living continues to increase and pay wages the same people will continue to struggle financially. This ongoing problem can no longer continue to be ignored! It is definitely time for the minimum wage to be increased to a resonable amount. Hopefully we want have to wait another 12 years to see another increase in the minimum wage. We are long overdue for some relief from the high cost of living.