1 If your health insurance premiums are paid entirely by your employer or the government, you cannot deduct the cost. 2  If you have health insurance through your employer and your share of the premium is deducted from your paycheck pre-tax, you cannot deduct the cost because the premiums were tax-free already.
For example, an employee earning minimum wage and working a full 40 hours per week currently takes home a gross pay of $290 per week. In theory, a $1.75 minimum-wage hike would increase that employeeâs gross pay to $360 per week. However, thatâs only if that employee continues to work 40 hours per week, a scenario that will become increasingly less realistic under Obamacare, which gives employers a huge incentive to cut worker hours.
Minimum Wage. Many low-income earners earn minimum wage, which in 2013 is $7.25. A minimum-wage worker who works 40 hours a week earns $290 a week -- $1,160 a month or $13,920 a year. The federal government considers a person who lives alone and earns minimum wage a low-income earner. That same person, if supporting three other people, would fall squarely below the poverty line.