A LIVING WAGE.

What is a living wage? What is a poverty wage? What is the minimum wage? What types of work do we value, and who are the people that hold those jobs? What unseen costs – transportation, rent, food, materials, clothing– go into labor to further devalue it? 

The minimum wage in Alaska is a mere $10.85 per hour. This is not enough.

Researchers at MIT have estimated that in order to make a “living wage” a single adult in Alaskan needs to earn at least $17.15 per hour. This estimate assumes that an adult works 2800 hours a year, and makes other research based estimations on the minimum cost of housing, transport, food, medical, civic duties and taxes. For “other” costs – emergencies, treats, shopping for clothing, seeing a movie with a friend, buying a new notebook for your sketches– MIT set a budget of $4,596 for a year. Even with this research that endorses a seven dollar an hour increase in the Alaskan minimum wage, less than $90 a week is set aside for people to spend on non-essential needs. 

In approaching this piece, I wanted to explore what $100 worth of art looked like if I paid myself only that of $17.15 per hour, and calculated all the costs associated with creating art. 

The cost of the materials initially seemed low, after all I had already purchased my watercolor set, the paper, pencils, pens, and everything. However, as I kept moving through the piece, these small purchases and the cost per use started adding up. I needed a space to paint. My apartment in Spenard, which I split with my partner, costs $1925 a month in rent, or $2 an hour to our landlord. The high quality cotton paper I was saving for a special art project cost $12.20 from Blaine’s Art Supply, or $1.20 a page. I used two pages. The journal I sketched in, pencils I used, every little detail, the pennies added up. The frame for the piece came from Goodwill, cheap at approximately $3.99. To be transparent, I think it cost $4.99. My partner remembers it costing $2.99. I split the difference.To try and calculate the prerequisite costs of the piece quickly became impossible. I am typing this on my laptop after all, new and expensive after recently saving for a year to purchase it. What is the cost per use of a laptop in this age? I want to post this blog post on my website, hosted by squarespace and paid for by my labor. I like to watch TV while I paint. What is the cost of Hulu per episode of Bones?

All together, I estimate that I spent $20.20 on materials for this piece. But that number is flawed because I cannot meaningfully calculate all the simple expenses that went into creating a space where I can create. Erring on the side of undervaluing– as the worker is so often undervalued– I am already out more than a full hour of labor in cost of materials alone. 

At 7pm on November 19, 2023 I finally sat down and started the piece. I began researching what a “living wage” looks like in Alaska. Some rough calculations ensued. By 7:27 pm I had an idea for the time frame for the project, but still needed proper subject material. I opened my notebook and just started doodling until the right idea came to me. To be fair, the idea had been brewing in the back of my mind for a week already. But finally it was ready to put into action. At 7:41 I started rifling through the house, asking my partner for spare cash, and arranging it on the table for a reference shot. (The table itself was free, generosity from a friend.) I found $103 dollars in cash between the two of us, by emptying out our emergency cash funds and also double checking a change jar. Cell phone photography ensued. 

Today, November 23 I am finishing the writing. Four hours and thirty one minutes of work in total. Including the cost of materials, an hourly wage of $17.15, this piece is worth $97.37. 

I am not done though. I still need to submit the piece, fill out the appropriate paperwork, make the blog post, take photos for my website, and staging photos for the gallery. Like so much other labor in our world, it will be unpaid and not calculated into the cost of A Living Wage. 

Before I go though, I reached out to friends and loved ones to ask them what their hourly wage is here in Anchorage. 

At my legal job I make $41 dollars an hour– salary though, assuming I work  37.5 hours a week. In reality, it's anywhere from 40 to 65 hours a week. Depending on the week my wage is anywhere from $25 an hour to $38 an hour.

Stacy, an employee at a local bakery, makes $15 an hour. She also works as a nurse, where her wage is $49 an hour.

Mark, at the Anchorage Museum makes about $17 an hour, after taxes.

Paula at the library makes about $32 an hour, but her wage started at $27 a few years ago. 

Maxine earns about $15 an hour at a theater in town– it’s her second job.