Originally Posted by kane

This was a lot of years ago, but I am sure there are still people in this situation at companies like this. I worked for a company where most of the people made around $7-$8 per hour. At this time it was the early 1990's and minimum wage was around $4.00 per hour. So the average person at this company made $280-$320 per week before taxes.

For a while your personal health insurance was free and it cost $30 per dependent per check for you to add your kids/spouse. The company got sold and the new company changed they rules. They took $25 per check (we got paid twice per month) for your personal health insurance. It was $80 per check per dependent beyond that. There was a single mom that I worked with that had three kids and a deadbeat ex. So she had to pay $50 per month for herself then an additional $480 per month for her kids. Total of around $530 a month for health insurance coverage and she made about $8 per hour so about 40% of her wages went to health insurance. needless to say she couldn't afford it and found another job asap.

I have a feeling stuff like this is a lot more common than you think.