I think one state here recently (January 1st) raised their minimum wage to slightly over $9, but the federal minimum wage is still $7.25. I'm sure there are one or two small towns somewhere where $7.25 is a livable wage (though I doubt any of us would want to live there), but in a city of any size I would think it has to leave you well below the poverty line. If you work a job where tips are involved, the minimum is even lower.
Traditionally education and degrees was a sure way out of being "working poor," and they still are, but to a lesser extent. You can look around and see millions of people with degrees unemployed or underemployed. It's at a point now where it's miraculous for someone with no college education or degrees to make a decent living working for someone else. Which may be why every young person in America thinks they'll start a company of their own and become wealthy. But that's even a longer and more unrealistic shot than the degree route.
But it's all a joke, of course, because a degree in and of itself is worthless in the real world. I've read resumes from a thousand people with degrees who couldn't even spell. But a lot of larger companies are lazy, so they use the degrees as some sort of measure of competence and hire based on them.
Now I'm just rambling. But the reality is jobs like postal clerk where someone can come in with little education and work their way up to a comfortable living are becoming extinct. We've been very short sighted in the U.S., moving from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, and it will be the death of us in the long run.
