Quote:
Originally Posted by nfotiu
Can you show a legitimate cost of living difference between say Calgary and a small town in Mississippi? I probably live in a slightly above average cost of living med size city and I get sticker shock on just about everything I’m Calgary. Grocery prices are at least 40-50% higher. Rent, house prices, gas prices, golf courses, gas prices are all significantly higher and close to double for some things. On the other side all those things are 30-40% cheaper in some small Virginia and West Virginia towns. You can call it anecdotal but cost of living calculations seem rather nebulous. Everyone has different priorities on what they spend money on, but real world cost of living can vary from 2-3 times across the US.
I think $15 without any time to phase it in is too high too quickly in some places. The market can't take increased prices and businesses will close, and people will be out of work or working less. I would guess the majority of people in the US live in places where the min wage is close to $15 anyway, or at least no one is paying less than $14 or $15. $15 min wage becomes a nonsensical policy when it causes economic problems in 25% of the country, is an appropriate boost in another 25% and does absolutely nothing in 50% of the country. Continuing to lobby for a $15 min wage instead of something based on local conditions just makes it an easy policy to reject and it gets no where.
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I have referenced the following site before, but doubt the accuracy of some of the numbers: (obviously the gas price is way out of date, for example)
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...atchComparison