Residents in Jackson, Mississippi, making minimum wage earn $7.25 hourly based on federal laws because the state itself does not have its own minimum wage law.
That figure, however, falls nearly $2.50 an hour below the living wage of $9.73 needed by an adult to survive in Jackson, according to data
compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the metropolitan area. The living wage necessary to live in Jackson rises to $20.38 hourly for an adult with one child and $24.26 for an adult with two children.
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Minimum wage marks the lowest pay or compensation an employee in a certain state or municipality. Living wage calculates what funds are needed to meet everyday needs, based on a number of factors including marriage, children, debt, and cost-of-living.
Jackson, famed for its blues music tradition and Southern history, has a median household income of $44,224 and a median home price of $147,700,
according to Forbes. Unemployment there sat at 6.6 percent in mid-2015,
the Sun-Herald reported.
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Mississippi is among five Southern states that have yet to pass a minimum wage law, joining Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Alabama, although four additional states have minimum wages set below the
federal rate, the Huffington Post said.
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