# Ancient Roman cost of living

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-roman-cost-of-living/368577>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 13, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-roman-cost-of-living/368577 "2006-08-13T18:33:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-roman-cost-of-living/368577/21 "2006-08-15T23:35:04Z")

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[QUOTE=gazpacho]  
No it doesn’t. The minimum wage is $5.15. A cup of coffe at starbucks is about $1.50 or $2.00. A cup of fancy coffee is $3.00 or $4.00.  
[/QUOTE]

They have things taken out of their paycheck as well so it isn’t that far off for take-home cash.

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**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-roman-cost-of-living/368577/22 "2006-08-15T23:38:58Z")

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[QUOTE=Shagnasty]  
They have things taken out of their paycheck as well so it isn’t that far off for take-home cash.  
[/QUOTE]  
At most they will have 20% taken out which still doesn’t get you down to the cost of a cup of house joe.

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-roman-cost-of-living/368577/23 "2006-08-15T23:42:28Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> =gazpacho  
> No it doesn’t. The minimum wage is $5.15. A cup of coffe at starbucks is about $1.50 or $2.00. A cup of fancy coffee is $3.00 or $4.00.

Much closer to the $2/cup around me, and sometimes more. Going into fancy things can get you easially up over $4. And remember that’s plus tax.

Now if you take a wage of $5.15, then take out taxes, yes I can see that a cup of coffee at Starbucks can be greater then 1 hrs work.

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