So I was researching the minimum wage in the US because my cousin wants to move there, and I found out that things are quite different from Brazil. There isn’t a single national minimum wage; each state sets its own. The federal minimum is only $7.25 per hour (frozen since 2009, kind of), but some states are already at $17.50 per hour. Crazy, right?

The calculation is very simple: you multiply the hourly wage by the number of hours per week. If you earn the federal minimum working 40 hours, that’s about $1,160 per month, which converted to reais is around R$6,000. It seems like a lot, but then you see that rent alone takes half of that. Washington D.C. has the highest minimum wage in the country ($17.50/hr), but it’s also the most expensive city. California and New York are also high, but the cost of living matches.

What I found interesting is that not everyone earns the minimum wage. Waiters, for example, earn less because they supplement with tips. And there’s a detail: the US minimum wage varies quite a bit by region, so personally I wouldn’t live there earning only the federal minimum. But in states like Washington or D.C., it’s possible to live better. Has anyone here worked in the US? How was it?