This infographic is a lie, and so is the commentary.

This 2013 chart was created by McDonald’s and Visa in an attempt to show how people could survive on $8.25/hour if they only budgeted. It was shared to a local Poor People’s Campaign social media page from the independent-media-gathering site AlterNet. Below I break down why it makes no sense and why the $15 minimum wage is not really a living wage unless you are ultra-conservative (which based on the comments, post weren’t).

:Note…this is a first draft, excuse any typos. I haven’t gone back through yet to edit…:

You can’t actually get any relevant data from this at face value. You can attempt to get somewhere if you rework it. So I’ll go item by item.

First off, with the wages – In a quick search for McDonalds, it says that, for non-managerial staff, they pay anywhere from $11-$17. The first thing I see erred in the chart is that it says the employee will make $2060 net, but the point is to prove that an employee can live off of $8.25/hr. So let’s do some math. If the wage is $8.25, we can assume that’s not taxed (this low, we can assume 20-25% of taxes would be taken out, let’s be generous and say 20%), but the monthly total is. Months are kind of wonky, so let’s annualize for consistency.

1^st job = $1,105/mo net = $13,260/yr = $255/wk

$8.25 less taxes = $6.60

$255/$6.60 = $38.64

But wait, doesn’t that mean we’re already at just about 40 weeks? This sheet doesn’t say anything about overtime. What would the hours be without taxes removed?

$255/8.25 = 30.9 hrs/wk

Okay, that’s better, but what would the pay/hours be for the rest?

2^nd job = $955/mo net = $11,460/yr = $220.38

We won’t even bother trying to take out taxes here.

So if we’re still making $8.25/hr, that would be 26.7 hours for a total of 57 hours. But nowhere did it say there would be overtime.

So if we did the reverse, $220.38/9.9 hours (the remaining) = $22.26.

So basically you can stop right there because their math makes absolutely no sense, unless what was shared is missing vital information. But let’s play around with the rest of the budget. I inflated their numbers at 5.4% for inflation and I want to explain somethings (some comments are teetering on the edge of not to open-mindedness).

We all need to understand that the standard of living is different everywhere. For example, most apartments in large US cities are super expensive, but go to Montreal and they’re super cheap. Inflated, rent/mortgage becomes $632. Cities like Columbus, Memphis, El Paso, Tallahassee, Albuquerque, Indianapolis, Tulsa, Lincoln, Detroit, Wichita, Louisville, and Tucson all offer one-bedrooms (this budget was made for a one bedroom) for that amount or lower. So imagine all the rural places and smaller cities and towns in between? For this activity, I’m going with the assumption of rentals and I won’t include rental insurance as it is usually a nominal cost. But with housing we need to talk about utilities like water, sewer, heat and electricity. Everyone is different and pays different amounts. To anyone who thinks, “they don’t budget for heat?” Well, would you in Tallahassee? Also, if you lived in, say, the City of Plattsburgh, your heat would be included with your electricity AND you would most likely pay less than $90 a month for the warmer seasons. Adjusted for inflation, electricity becomes $105. Then let’s through an extra $400 for the year for heating costs, just in case. It could be more or less. Next step of math:

$632/mo rent x 12 mo = $7,589

$105/mo electricity x 12 mo = $1,265 + $400 annualized heat = $1,665 + $7,589 = $9,254.

Let’s assume and variances would cover water/sewer/trash.

Now these are your housing costs. Per HUD’s definition of affordability, your housing costs should be no more than 1/3 of your take home income. So:

$9,254 x 3 = $27,271/yr net income = $2,273/mo = $524/wk

To find out gross, let’s go a little higher for taxes a 25%:

$27,761 x 1.25 = $34,701/yr gross = $2,892/mo = $667/wk = $16.68

So for your housing to be affordable, you need to make a minimum of $16.68 an hour (assuming you work a full work week). So that’s the base right there.

So with other costs, let’s go back to our net income at $2,273. Here are our remainder costs:

Savings: $100.

*Savings are really important, but when you’re poor not all that practical (also I didn’t inflate here for obvious reasons). This also is the most flexible.

Car payment: $158.

*A lot of poor people don’t have a car, especially in cities. So this should be transportation. And if you own your car outright, then gas. I think a lot of people don’t realize what a luxury it is to be able to finance or lease a vehicle. And yes, you’re payment may be way higher, or it could be way lower. You have to remember that this is an average and depending on where you are, not a need. In the North Country? Sure. NYC, definitely not.

Car insurance: $105

*This one can also very a lot. You could be like me with a lot of speeding tickets and a lease and spend almost $200. You could own your car outright and have no problems and pay $30. You might not have a car at all. So let’s just leave it for now.

Health Insurance: $21

*This is the most unrealistic one to me. At full time, in NY, at almost $17/hr, you will not qualify for free/low cost health insurance. Plus copays, should be here. Because I’m thinking average, I’m going to bump it only to $100.

Health Insurance: $100

Cable/Phone: $105

*Cable is absolutely not necessary – and I am the first to say everyone has the right to luxury. But with streaming services and whatever, it is not necessary. I understand stretching your budget, but having it make or break it should never happen. That being said, my cell phone is through AT&T, more data than I need and unlimited talk/text for $30. Between that and internet I meet $100. But I saw comments thinking it couldn’t be done. It can.

Other: $105

*Instead of other, I’ll say groceries for now. And this really depends. Let’s say $30/wk, which is arguably high (again, this is assuming one person).

Groceries: $120

The total:  $688

Plus monthly rent = $56

So that would only give you $14 a week to spend. So really, even $15 an hour isn’t that realistic, at least not if you want to live on your own. Looking at this what would you cut out? If you take out savings you’d have almost $40 a week but then nothing if things went wrong. We tend to focus on a minimum wage or this evil corp or that one. What if thinks like rent, utilities, health insurance were all subsidized? What if cable and phone companies didn’t have monopolies so you only had one or two choices?

Most importantly though, never ever look at these charts, pro or anti capitalism, and take them at face value. 90% of the time they will be wrong and are just propaganda. Like the ones that say “this is how much you need to make to afford to live in this state” – those are the most leading maps I’ve ever seen.