Minimum Housing

With the movement for a $15/hour living wage rolling across the country and fast-food walkouts becoming the norm in Chicago, Estately Blog contributed a stark portrait of what the current $7.25/hour minimum wage and the desired wage buys on the housing market for single-earner households. In a number of places, it's the difference b/w a rundown shack and a respectable bungalow; in locales like L.A., $7.25/hour buys an RV but no static abode; and in Chicago, there's always something in a hazardous neighborhood. Estately's accounting, by their admission, doesn't even factor in taxes or vacation days, so it's likely the minimum wage buys exactly zero housing. [Estately Blog, photo: West Side fixer-upper]