[nandemo]

First, I do agree that she's selling herself short. Actually she shouldn't even mention salary to start with.

But I keep hearing that X is too low for living in the Valley, for varying values of X.

Out of curiosity, I checked the minimum wage in California and it's $8/hour. In SF it's $9.8. So how do blue collar workers survive? Do they all (mostly?) commute from outside the Valley? If they have to live in the Valley, are their living conditions terrible?

Serious question.

[jfarmer]

Blue collar workers have a hard time surviving and there is a massive problem of low/low-middle class flight in SF. This predominantly affects minorities, who have to live in less safe neighborhoods like the Tenderloin or Bayview/Hunter's Point, or move to cheaper places like Oakland.

SF prides itself on its diversity, but every year it gets whiter and whiter.