[rpedroso]

The minimum wage in New York is $8.75. Someone working 40 hours/week for 52 weeks/year, which is a generous estimate due to how many minimum wage employers hire and schedule employees, would earn $18,200 every year. After 15% in federal income taxes, that leaves us with $15,470. Let's assume they pay nothing in state/local income taxes. Let's also assume they live alone and have no children or family to care for-- all their expenses are their own.

Assuming that they pay $1000/mo for their apartment (let's be generous -- this includes rent and utilities), that leaves them with $3,470 every year to cover all other living expenses.

If I spend $50/week on food (which is conservative for NYC), that adds up to $2400, which leaves us at $1070. At that salary, if you spend more than $70 in a YEAR on clothing, healthcare, toothpaste, public transit), then you won't be able to afford $1000 in bail. I spend more than that every year on public transit alone (MTA 30-day pass costs $116.50 -> $1398.00/year).

It's really not hard to see how a $1000 bail can be out of reach for the poor in New York.

[tanderson92]

Not to put too fine a point on it, since overall your calculations seem fair and your conclusions reasonable: but at $18200 with $10300 in deductions and exemptions the person's AGI would be only $7900 and hence all of their taxable income falls into the 10% marginal tax bracket. Of course this neglects payroll taxes (you did as well) but also ignores the EITC so suppose these roughly cancel. This results in the tax burden being $790 rather than your calculated $2730. That $2000 is a huge deal to a minimum-wage earner. Your back of the envelope calculation in this specific area was off by 450%.

[rpedroso]

Yeah I figured I would be off by a fair bit off when it came to the income tax math. I'm not sure whether there would additionally be some tax burden due to NY state income tax and NY city income tax. You're right that $2000 is huge to a minimum-wage earner -- that's almost 11% more disposable income.

On the flip side, minimum-wage earners are more likely to be employed part-time instead of full-time, but only 10% and 2% respectively of those groups are paid minimum wage or below, so it's pretty tricky to come up with a good estimate here.[1]

My main goal was to illustrate that the poor spend disproportionately more of their income on basic needs compared to the middle class, and inspire some empathy when we discuss the economics of poverty.

[1] http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2013.pdf

[jeremyt]

Your numbers aren't quite right.

The first $6000 of income is the standard deduction and is taxed at 0%. Then, the next $10,000 is taxed at 10%, and the remainder up to the next $30,000 is taxed at 15%. You have substantially overstated the amount of taxes this hypothetical person is paying. And that's not taking into account that they probably qualify for the earned income tax credit.

[tanderson92]

The standard deduction is $6300 and you missed the personal exemption at $4000.

[theorique]

This is probably what gives rise to the bail bonds industry, no? Credit for posting bail.

[ploxiln]

This doesn't refute my point. It supports it - you can't survive in NYC on $16k/yr.

I doubt all these people who can't afford $1k bail make within $2k/yr of each other. They might make $25k/yr or $30k/yr, but whatever it is, they'll never have $1k saved.

It's your prerogative to think I'm "blaming" poor americans by stating this, but it is also the reality of how these people live, as you would agree.

The point is, no bail amount would work.

[rpedroso]

I honestly take issue with the way you phrase your argument. You refer to the poor with phrases like "these people", trivialize their ability to survive without a week's paycheck because "they've done without before" and accuse them of spending frivolously without any real evidence.

My point in writing my comment was to emphasize that the poor pay disproportionately more of their income towards basic needs than the middle class. My hope was that I would provoke some empathy when discussing the economics of poverty.

I don't disagree with you that bail is a tricky issue -- for it to accomplish its goal, it has to mean something. But on the flip side, there are people living in New York City who cannot afford bail and get stuck in the justice system for years without recourse, without a speedy trial, and that seems unjust to me.[1]

A little empathy goes a long way.

[1] http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law