A full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage, or the prevailing state or local minimum wage, cannot afford a modest two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).
In addition, a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a one-bedroom rental home at fair market rent in only 6% of counties nationwide, not including Puerto Rico. These 204 counties are in states where the minimum wage is higher than the federal rate of $7.25.
According to NLIHC’s “Out of Reach 2024” report, the average hourly wage earned by renters this year is $23.18, $8.93 less than the two-bedroom housing wage of $32.11 and $3.56 less than the one-bedroom housing wage of $26.74. The housing wage is NLIHC’s estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must earn to afford a rental home at fair market rent without spending more than 30% of their income.
The report finds that the average minimum-wage worker must work 113 hours per week, or 2.8 full-time jobs, to afford a two-bedroom rental at fair market rent. For a one-bedroom, it decreases to 95 hours per week, or 2.4 full-time jobs.
Fourteen of the nation’s 20 most common occupations pay median wages less than what is needed for renters to afford a modest one-bedroom rental. According to the NLIHC, 64 million people, or 42% of the entire workforce, work in these 14 occupations. Median hourly wages are $14.85 for food and beverage workers; $17.02 for home health aides, personal care aides, nursing assistants, orderlies and psychiatric aides; and $25.61 for construction trades workers.
Other key findings from the report include:
- Nationally, the median wage of a white worker is just 26 cents less than the housing wage for one-bedroom apartment. However, the median wage of black and Latino workers falls short $6.24 and $6.42, respectively;
- California is the most expensive state based on a two-bedroom housing wage of $47.38, followed by Massachusetts, $44.84; New York, $44.77; Hawaii, $44.60; and Washington, $40.32;
- North Dakota comes in as the least expensive with an $18.38 two-bedroom housing wage, followed by West Virginia, $18.46; Iowa, $18.86; Arkansas, $18.97; and South Dakota, $19.68;
- California has eight of the 10 most expensive jurisdictions—Santa Cruz-Watsonville, San Francisco, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, Salinas, San Diego-Carlsbad, Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, and Napa. The Santa Cruz-Watsonville metropolitan statistical area comes in first with a two-bedroom housing wage of $77.96; and
- For nonpmetropolitan counties, Massachusetts’ Nantucket County has the most expensive two-bedroom housing wage at $48.58, followed by Hawaii’s Kauai County, $45.62; Colorado’s Eagle and Summit counties at $44.60 and $42.69, respectively; and Massachusetts’ Dukes County, $41.46.
