Idaho's minimum wage is equal to the federal minimum wage, which is the lowest amount an employer can legally pay most workers. Set at $7.25 per hour, this means a person working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks per year will take home just $15,080 per year, less than $1,000 above the $14,570 that the federal government considers as the national poverty line for a two-person family.
This breaks down to $290 per week or $58 per day, and is less than the state's living wage
calculated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That is set at $9.59 an hour for a single adult. A living wage is what you must earn to afford basic costs to sustain yourself, including housing, food, medical bills, and transportation, and earning less than a living wage places a significant burden on the individual.
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For instance, in the Gem State, a single adult needs a minimum of $5,407 housing costs and another $3,607 for food alone. Residents who have children need to earn much more — $19.69 per hour for one child and $24.18 per hour for two children per single adult. The cost of child care is also expensive in Idaho, costing some $5,216 annually for one child, and around $9,358 for two, according to MIT.
Idaho ranks 47th in the country when it comes to median household income with per capita earnings at just $36,340 per year compared to the national average of $53,046. This ranking is actually up from the previous year, however, when the Gem State ranked 49th,
according to Boise Public Radio.
Idaho is one of 21 states to only require employers pay the federal minimum wage. The other 29 states, plus the District of Columbia, have laws requiring employers to pay more than the federal minimum wage. These rates vary from less than $1 above the national requirement to as high as $10.50, which is the required minimum wage in Washington, D.C.
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