There's so much happening in politics right now.

So red wine and blue is here to ask, okay, but why?

I relied on government assistance to survive.

Child care grants, food stamps, Medicaid, utility assistance, even gas vouchers, were absolutely vital, and made

it possible to use my limited income on rent, because the rent always eats first.

There were days in the month before the food stamp money was replenished that I went to bed hungry

or ate very little. After paying bills, I often had no more

than $20 left for the month. No matter how hard I worked and never felt like it was enough, or even

that I was enough. This is the reality for millions of workers in America, struggling to survive

on minimum wage. The federal minimum wage right now is $7.25.

For someone working full-time, that translates to $15,060 per year, just $20 over the poverty line.

And honestly, in 2025, that seems overly optimistic.

Who out there can survive on just $15,000 a year? 30 states have their own minimum wage that's

higher than $7.25. But for the other 20 states, workers have to make due with barely over $7 an hour.

And in Georgia and Wyoming, the state minimum wage is actually less than that, only $5.15.

Not every business qualifies to pay their workers below federal minimum wage, but some do. There are real

Americans out there making $5 an hour, while billionaires take joyrides into space. The U.S. minimum

wage has been hotly debated since it began, so let's take a closer look at the history of minimum wage, exactly who is making

it, and dispel some misinformation. In 2023, about 869,000 hourly workers in the United States made

minimum wage or less. That's almost a million workers trying to survive on $7 an hour.

And contrary to popular opinion, they're not all teenagers.

In reality, teens aged 16 to 19 make up only about 10% of workers making minimum wage.

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