The federal minimum wage is still $7.25/hour, or $15,080/year (assuming 40 hours per week for an entire year, before tax-- and yes, nearly half of that is still taxed income).

@mawr

Shit has not changed since Obama's first year in office. Tipped federal minimum wage is still $2.15/h.

What the actual fuck.

Then again my household can't afford to buy a house anywhere we could safely live and work with two six figure incomes D:

Price increases are crazy bad here on food stuffs. Average cost of my household grocery orders which account for cooking 4-5 meals for 4 people with leftovers to cover at least 1 meal the following day each are up 40% in the last six months.

Any semblance of sanity if you try to eat out here even like... fast casual or formerly cheap things like.. Lee's are.. basically $10-15 USD for a meal.

Thankfully working from home makes cooking more viable but I'm literally cooking like my parents did when we were broke as a child. Buy meat only when it is on sale, cook large pot meals (jambalaya, creole, soups, curry) with lots of rice or tri tip when it is on sale and shred it for sandwiches over the next couple of days.