By Sarah Ellis
The State, October 22, 2014
COLUMBIA, SC — To rent an average one-bedroom apartment with utilities affordably in the Columbia metro area, a person would have to earn more than $12 an hour in a 40-hour work week or work 70 hours a week earning minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. ...
“It obviously reflects that it’s very difficult to live on minimum wage, whether you’re an individual or family,” said Frank Knapp, president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, which advocates raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25.
“If you’re spending a greater percentage of your take-home pay on housing – nobody’s working 80 hours a week – then there’s no money leftover for another type of spending,” Knapp said. “There’s no money to go shopping. There’s no money to invest back in the economy. That’s all going to housing, and the majority of what’s left is going to transportation and food.”
Raising the minimum wage not only is good for people with low income, Knapp said, but for the economy as a whole. ...