Societal Standard of Living Rules and Guidelines

The Societal Standard of Living (SSOL) follows a structured set of rules to ensure fairness and adaptability while maintaining economic feasibility. The SSOL system ensures wages cover essential needs while minimizing reliance on government subsidies. It adapts to changing economic conditions, providing a clear framework for sustainable living.

Ensuring Economic Stability

1. Localized: SSOL varies based on work place location allowing for adjustments accounting for local differences in housing, transportation, and other costs.
2. Transparent:
   • SSOL is determined using publicly available prices within a 30-minute commute radius from an employer's location.
   • There are no hidden taxes or fees for either the employer or the employee.
   • Current employer-side taxes are incorporated into the SSOL calculation.
   • Employees are given a breakdown of SSOL allocations, listing exact goods, services, and locations where employees can obtain them at the specified prices.
3. Adjustments: SSOL is updated on a fixed schedule (e.g., quarterly) based on the highest cost points from the previous period, ensuring wages remain aligned with actual living expenses.
4. Single Minimum Wage: There is one universal SSOL wage without separate rates for part-time employees, tipped employees, or gig workers. Regardless of how, if a worker can get to 40 hours per week, they can meet the SSOL.

First a few guidelines

• The SSOL is based on a worker economy.
• For each element of the SSOL, there is a federal minimum standard. Each state would then be able to add to the minimum standard. Each county/city would then be able to add to the minimum standard set by the state. Finally, employers may choose to exceed the minimum standard any given SSOL item.

 

Now the rules

Part 1. The calculation of the SSOL

The SSOL is based on where the employer is located, not the employee. From the employer's location, a max commute time of 30 minutes is applied, using verifiable commute times and using the SSOL transportation component. Regardless of whether an employee commutes by car, bike, foot, train, subway, bus, boat, or a combination of these, a travel radius from the employer's location is established. Commute time also includes any time required to enter the facility, pass through security, and reach the employee's workstation or clock-in point.

Once the commute radius has been established, the remaining component prices of the SSOL can be determined. The prices used for housing must come from within the commute radius. The same applies to which stores are included for food, clothing, and other SSOL items. The price of insurance must be for doctors and hospitals that are within the radius.

Employees must be able to effectively use SSOL-designated transportation to access necessary goods and services. If the designated transportation method is public transit (bus, rail, subway) or non-car options (bike, motorcycle), then food pricing cannot assume bulk purchases. If the transportation is bus and the lines run from 6 am to 10 pm but the store the employee works at does not close until 1 am, then the bus is not a viable transportation method. If the designated transportation method is biking or walking, work schedules must account for inclement weather.

The SSOL is the yearly sum of these following items' publicly available prices divided by 2000/hr to get the minimum wage/hr. This is a generic list that is not fully encompassing but does give a general idea of what is entailed.

• Food
• Housing
  • Dwelling - house/apartment/trailer
  • Furnishing - bed, dresser, couch, table
  • Insurance
  • Utilities
  • Taxes
• Clothes
• Health Insurance - $0 deductible
• Transportation
  • Vehicle
  • Fuel
  • Insurance
• Communication
  • Phone
  • Internet
• Government requirements
  • Licenses
  • Taxes
    • Federal Income
    • State Income
    • Local Income
    • Social Security
    • Medicare
    • Unemployment
  • Tax preparation

There is only one minimum wage. There is no part-time rate or tips rate. The taxes of the SSOL includes all the necessary taxes needed for the individual to be an employee of the employer, included all current payroll taxes.

 

Part 2. The SSOL adjustments

This is what I consider to be the most important part of the SSOL. The SSOL floats over time, both up and down. As the prices of the items defined in the SSOL fluctuate, so does the minimum wage the SSOL calculates. So if the price of fuel spikes, then the Fuel section of the transportation component adjust accordingly. If rent for an SSOL-approved apartment drops by $200 per month, the annual SSOL calculation will reflect a $2,400 reduction.

 

Part 3. The SSOL replacements

A key feature of SSOL is the ability for employers to offer substitutions for SSOL components. The ability for the employer to offer their own alternatives to any SSOL component allows the employees the ability to expand the benefits they get for working for certain organizations. For instance, if the health insurance portion of the SSOL is $500 per month, but for the same $500 per month the employer is offering a much better plan. Or the food portion is defined at $100 a week but the employer offers a store card of $120 for the local grocer in exchange for the $100. It is up to the employee on whether they wish to take the offer or keep the money. This aspect of SSOL will likely play a significant role early on, but over time, its impact may diminish as public prices stabilize. Mainly because the incentive of the employer is to reduce the SSOL, which by its definition is all PUBLIC prices. While employers may encourage employees to accept their offerings, their ultimate incentive is to lower public prices - since only public prices impact SSOL calculations.