Is $20 an Hour a Liveable Salary?

There's a question that millions of Americans ask themselves every day — not in boardrooms or financial planning offices, but in grocery store aisles, at gas pumps, and in the quiet hours of the night when the bills are spread out on the kitchen table.

"Am I making enough?"

If you earn $20 an hour, you might feel like you're stuck in an economic purgatory. You make too much to qualify for most government assistance programs. But you might also feel like you make too little to truly get ahead. You're not in poverty — at least not by the official definition — but you're not exactly comfortable either.

Twenty dollars an hour sounds decent. It's above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 by a significant margin. It's more than many retail, food service, and entry-level workers earn. When someone tells you they make $20 an hour, the reflexive response might be, "That's not bad."