[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