Let them eat cake

THE 2004 HHS POVERTY GUIDELINES

Size of Family Unit	48 Contiguous States and D.C.	Alaska	Hawaii
1	$ 9,310	$11,630	$10,700
2	12,490	15,610	14,360
3	15,670	19,590	18,020
4	18,850	23,570	21,680
5	22,030	27,550	25,340
6	25,210	31,530	29,000
7	28,390	35,510	32,660
8	31,570	39,490	36,320
For each additional person, add	3,180	3,980	3,660

There are two slightly different versions of the federal poverty measure:
* The poverty thresholds, and
* The poverty guidelines.

The poverty thresholds are the original version of the federal poverty measure.

[...]

The poverty guidelines are the other version of the federal poverty measure. They are issued each year in the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The guidelines are a simplification of the poverty thresholds for use for administrative purposes — for instance, determining financial eligibility for certain federal programs.

[...]

The poverty guidelines are sometimes loosely referred to as the “federal poverty level” (FPL) [...]

Most Americans who rely on just a full-time job earning the federal minimum wage cannot afford the rent and utilities on a one- or two-bedroom apartment [...]

[...]

For a two-bedroom rental alone, the typical worker must earn at least $15.37 an hour — nearly three times the federal minimum wage, the National Low Income Housing Coalition said in its annual "Out of Reach" report.

That figure assumes that a family spends no more than 30 percent of its gross income on rent and utilities — anything more is generally considered unaffordable by the government.

[...]

The median hourly wage in the United States is about $14, and more than one-quarter of the population earns less than $10 an hour, the report said.

[...]

The [2004] report quoted federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data that showed hourly wages rising about 2.6 percent over the past year, slower than the 2.9 percent rise in rents recorded in the Consumer Price Index.

[...]

In only four of the nation's 3,066 counties could a full-time worker making the federal minimum wage afford a typical one-bedroom apartment, the coalition said. Three were in Illinois: Clay, Crawford and Wayne counties; the other was Washington County, Fla.

California topped all states in the hourly wage needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment, at $21.24, followed by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland and New York.

[...]

[U]tility costs appear to be rising at a faster rate than rents [...] Add in stagnant wages, and the housing situation for the nation's poor "has gotten worse over the last year [...]"

[...]

States with more residents in rural areas were generally the most affordable, although no state's housing wage was lower than the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, which has not changed since 1997.

  Common Dreams article

However, Congressional pay raises have been constant since then.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.