At between 8.32 and $8.65 an hour, entry-level Dollar Tree workers are making, on average, a dollar or so above the federal minimum wage. At these rates, 40 hours per week at 50 weeks per year, one worker would be making between $16,640 and $17,300 annually. That, in turn, is a range hovering right around the $16,910 dollar-mark that the federal government considers as the poverty line (via The New York Times).
And not even $17,300 is near the amount of money that a family needs to reach a "modest yet adequate" standard of living in most parts of the United States, estimates the Economic Policy Institute. According to the institute's Family Budget Calculator, which takes into account the costs of housing, food, transportation, healthcare, taxes, and other necessities, it would cost a single person $51,323 dollars a year to live in the New York Metro area. That same person would have to dish out $42,825 a year to live in Los Angeles County, and it would take them 38,605 dollars a year to live in the Chicago Metro area.
It doesn't get much better if you go elsewhere. In fact, the National Employment Law Project predicts that by 2024 a single adult will need at least $15.00 an hour to live "to achieve an adequate standard of living," in any state nationwide (via CNBC). Not even Dollar Tree's assistant managers make that much.
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