A letter writer discussing the minimum wage, says that "low income workers, a single parent with two children, for example, can't live on" the minimum wage. Actually, a single person can live on the minimum wage, since the poverty level for a single person is $12,760 and, as the writer points out, a minimum wage worker working full time would make $15,080 a year. As for the single parent with two children, he or she wouldn't be able to live on the minimum wage, again as the writer points out.
The solution there is not to become a single parent with two children while trying to exist on the minimum wage. The solution is to have children only after you get educated and get married, not to have taxpayers support you and your two children.
David Pearse
Foothills
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
