How Much is a Living Wage?

To answer the question go here to the 'Poverty in America' website' and click on the 'living wage' calculator. Using the calculator you can determine the living wage for a specific town, city, township, in any state in the USA. Here is the link to the calculation of the 'living wage' necessary if you live in Harrietstown township in Franklin County NY. The calculator will show you living expenses for the area, hourly wages needed to meet those expenses and wages paid for different trades and professions.

Here are the per hour 'living wages' necessary for Saranac Lake, NY:

One adult - $7.72
Two adults - $11.27
One adult, one child - $14.69
Two adults, one child - $16.72
Two adults, two children - $21.05

And, for Bentonville, Ak:

One adult - $6.72
Two adults - $9.45
One adult, one child - $11.76
Two adults, one child -$13.68
Two adults, two children - $16.90

Note: The above figures are in 2004 dollars. Also, the calculator gets the minimum wage for NYS wrong. It provides the Federal minimum hourly wage. The minimum hourly wage for NY is $6.75 and will increase to $7.15 in 2007. I doubt this affects the calculation of living wage.

Comments About Wal-Mart

Find a plethora of comments about Wal-Mart here.

Wal-Mart Store Managers Steal Minutes - Get Bonuses

The testimony of this person is certainly an eye opener.

``If we have a manager who is able to capture one minute a week, 52 minutes a year, from 300 associates in his or her store, he would add to his bonus something around $1,300," Landy told jurors in state court. ``If he was able to capture one hour a week, his bonus would be enhanced by $82,000 for the average manager."

At least someone at Wal-Mart is making a good salary. Too bad it's done by stealing unpaid time from employees.

Congratulations Chris Knight - WNBZ Radio

Do you agree with the letter below:

In an on-air speech Friday I heard Chris Knight talk about the changes that he was going to make on “Talk of the Town.” There were a lot of opinions about where the show was going, but what I found hysterical was relating “Talk of the Town” to the Jerry Springer show. I guess whoever made that comment never watched the Jerry Springer show because Chris Knight is not giving out “Chrissy Beads.”

I also find it amusing that now you can NOT mention local businesses by name. Hum, could it be that those businesses being mentioned are paid advertisers for the radio station?

For the people who complain about the same callers every day, why don’t you call then? Kudos to the people who call and give their comments and names. Keep up the good work.

Finally, Wal-Mart is a big issue!! And people are letting off steam and want it heard, even if it is every day. Maybe Chris Knight is anti-Wal-Mart?

To people of the Saranac Lake area, we need to stand up and be heard about Wal-Mart.

By the way, where are my “Chrissy Beads”?

Joy Gonyea

Vermontville

Personally, I think the "Talk of the Town Radio" show has actually been worth listening to the last couple of weeks. There are new voices on the show and they actually have opinions backed up with facts in many cases. The negativity on the show seems to be history. The rule of not complaining about local businesses by name has been re-emphesized. No where have I heard Mr. Knight say you can't talk about Wal-Mart or any other business. But how many times do we need to hear "go Wal-Mart"?

My Trip to Wal-Mart - Ticonderoga

Yes indeed, I went. The parking lot was less than 1/3 full. I went into the store to check things out and to buy a black belt. I found the belts, a very small, picked over selection of very cheap leather belts. I bought one for $11.95 that probably cost $2 to make. Luckly I won't be using it much because it probably wouldn't last more than a few months with daily use. My everyday $20 solidly made belt is on it's 5th year. While there I checked out a few other things. I noticed they had 1 gigabyte SanDisk microcruz memory sticks on sale for $44.95. Not bad. But I got mine for $34.00 online. A no name 20" color TV for $88.95. I bought an RCA 20" last year for $94.00 but I bought it at Sears in SL, gladly supporting a downtown business. I really don't see the appeal.

Downtown Ticonderoga isn't even close to being as busy or vibrant as downtown Saranac Lake. And yes, they have several unused storefronts.