I love this idea as a way to physical show what it’s like to earn minimum wage in the US today. Blake Fall-Conroy put together a machine that dispenses pennies and allows any person to work for minimum wage.
The concept is simple. An individual cranks a handle on the machine and pennies drop out of it at a pace of every 5.04 seconds which will give the person $7.15 an hour, the current minimum wage for New York state. If the individual stops cranking, then the person stops receiving money.
I think that anyone that had to use this machine for a few hours would gain a new respect for the working poor of our nation.
Source: Blake Fall-Conroy