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Iron Range legislator Jason Metsa spends week living on minimum wage budget

First-term state Rep. Jason Metsa, a single DFLer from Virginia, is taking a challenge to live on a minimum wage budget for a week.

As the Legislature considers a bill that would raise the minimum wage in Minnesota, state Rep. Jason Metsa, a DFLer from Virginia, is trying to see, firsthand, what it’s like to live on the current minimum: $7.25 an hour.

It’s early yet, but he’s tweeting about it at @jasonmetsa.

Monday, the first day, he says he spent $2 on coffee and $5 on a dinner buffet.

The first-term legislator, who is 32 and single, is spending the week taking the Working America Minimum Wage Challenge.

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He calculated his food budget to be about $5 a day. He projected his other monthly costs on the minimum wage budget to be:

  • Housing $359
  • Taxes  $178
  • Healthcare $70
  • Transportation $278
  • Household and utilities $116

The bill under consideration would raise the state’s hourly minimum wage to $9.95.