[krapp]

Someone working as a cashier in Walmart should be able to afford shelter, food, and necessary non-emergency medical expenses. A 'living wage' is just that -- I work for you, you pay me at least enough to survive employment. What that amounts to, obviously, depends on the standard of living in any particular area.

[qwerty888]

So minimum wage in Manhattan should be set at $50/hour?

[krapp]

If it's impossible to survive in (or on, whatever) Manhattan for less than that, then yes. But I suspect there's a more flexible reality to the market than your question implies, given that people there already work for less than that and aren't dying in the streets as a result.

A minimum wage just means you can't decide one day that sales are down and now everyone makes 2 cents an hour to cover costs [1]. It means there should be an implicit minimum cost to maintaining a human workforce, because people need to eat.

[1]obviously not an economist

[artsrc]

If there is 1 adult with 3 children it is close: $41.91

http://livingwage.mit.edu/places/3606151000

[smileysteve]

No,because rent in Harlem (a few train stops away) requires less to live on.