So it looks like your bang doesn’t go tooo far for your buck even if you live in a LCOL state when you are on minimum wage I guess

Is this useful? What do you think? I honestly don’t know, but seen that I already had the data from this discussion, why not plot it?

I tried to find a map with it, but my searching skills seem to have deteriorated (or search engines aren’t great nowadays)

Data taken from St. Louis Fed’s FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) for “Regional Price Parities (RPP): All Items” and “State Minimum Wage Rate”

Latest data available for RPP is 2024, so I used same date for wages. For states with no minimum-wage law or a minimum wage below the federal minimum wage, federal minimum wage was applied like the folks at Economic Policy Institute do

Convertion based on following formula:

real wage = nominal wage * (100 / RPP)

Plotted with ultimaps.com, if anyone has another alternative that shows data + state abbreviation, lmk

What flaws do you see on this map? Where does it fail? I guess metro areas are always complicated and a more granular approach with county data would be more useful, right?

  • hitstun@feddit.onlineEnglish
    6·
    13 hours ago

    Visual Capitalist's infographic titled "The Purchasing Power of $100"; a map of the United States with each state colored in based on how much stuff $100 can actually buy, ranging from $88 in California to $113 in Arkansas

    Here you go. The ![alt text](imageURL) format seems to work best on PieFed and most Lemmy clients. Mbin users see a link with the alt text instead.

      • hitstun@feddit.onlineEnglish
        4·
        6 hours ago

        It’s because minimum wages are generally higher in states with high cost of living. OP’s map does a good job demonstrating that, even though everything is more expensive in New England and the west coast, the minimum wages there are high enough that you can afford it. Unless you’re from New Hampshire.