# Contested concept: minimally decent standard of living

_**What you are reading**: one contested-concept page in Deliberus's deliberation graph. Deliberus maps human reasoning — including claims that are contested, mistaken, or extreme — so that disagreement can be examined precisely. A claim's presence here is not an endorsement: the graph records that someone argued it, how it connects to other reasoning, and how far scrutiny has gotten. The metadata on this page describes the state of that scrutiny, not the truth of the claim._

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- **Contestedness**: criterion
- **Diagnosis**: The disagreement over 'minimally decent' masks a fundamental conflict between a 'market-price' view (where any wage is better than no wage) and a 'human-rights' or 'social-reproduction' view (where work must sustain a certain quality of life).
- **Canonical**: `/concept/minimally decent standard of living` (data: `/concept/minimally decent standard of living.json`)

## Senses in use
- **A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.** — used in 8 claim(s)
- **A normative standard of social inclusion and dignity that a full-time worker should be entitled to, regardless of the 'zero-job-loss' market efficiency.** — used in 3 claim(s)

## Claims using this term
- [According to the Economic Policy Institute, a worker with one dependent child in Chicago requires an hourly wage of $26.40 to meet a basic-…](/claim/claim_00d66d257a57.md) _(sense: A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.)_
- [The national legal minimum wage floor should be determined by calculating the specific wage required to ensure a minimally decent standard …](/claim/claim_0c27f0a8b2df.md) _(sense: A normative standard of social inclusion and dignity that a full-time worker should be entitled to, regardless of the 'zero-job-loss' market efficiency.)_
- [According to the Economic Policy Institute, a worker with one dependent child in Colorado Springs requires an hourly wage of $24.90 to meet…](/claim/claim_4ec204dc3f55.md) _(sense: A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.)_
- [A $15 hourly wage is insufficient to cover a basic-needs budget for a family consisting of one worker and one dependent child anywhere in t…](/claim/claim_84c86e677455.md) _(sense: A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.)_
- [The primary criterion for setting a national minimum wage should be the determination of what wage level ensures a minimally decent standar…](/claim/claim_8788d17c8d46.md) _(sense: A normative standard of social inclusion and dignity that a full-time worker should be entitled to, regardless of the 'zero-job-loss' market efficiency.)_
- [According to the Economic Policy Institute, a single worker in Chicago requires an hourly wage of $15.67 to meet a basic-needs budget.](/claim/claim_9a312d750ddb.md) _(sense: A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.)_
- [From the perspective of maintaining a minimally decent standard of living, a $15 minimum wage phased in over four to six years is barely ad…](/claim/claim_a5cba6fe1839.md) _(sense: A normative standard of social inclusion and dignity that a full-time worker should be entitled to, regardless of the 'zero-job-loss' market efficiency.)_
- [According to the Economic Policy Institute, a single worker in Colorado Springs requires an hourly wage of approximately $13.45 to meet a b…](/claim/claim_b0fb2cba0a63.md) _(sense: A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.)_
- [According to the Economic Policy Institute, a single worker in Washington, D.C. requires an hourly wage of $21.07 to meet a basic-needs bud…](/claim/claim_cbcd50d11fbf.md) _(sense: A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.)_
- [A proposed $15 minimum wage, when fully phased in by 2021 (estimated at $13.34 in 2016 dollars), would not cover the basic-needs budget for…](/claim/claim_d72515f07cda.md) _(sense: A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.)_
- [According to the Economic Policy Institute, a worker with one dependent child in Washington, D.C. requires an hourly wage of $39.35 to meet…](/claim/claim_e5018b949256.md) _(sense: A wage sufficient to cover a specific 'basic-needs budget' including housing, food, and healthcare for specific family configurations in specific geographic locations.)_