Full-Time Minimum Wage Workers Can’t Afford Rent

The "National Low Income Housing Coalition's" annual "Out of Reach" report was released and it shows that those working full-time minimum wage jobs cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country. In 93% of these counties, they can't even afford a one-bedroom.

Affordability is defined by the report as the hourly wage a full-time worker must make in order to spend no more than 30% of their income on rent. For this year, that would mean earning $24.90 an hour for a two-bedroom home and $20.40 per hour for a one-bedroom rental. Since last year, these numbers have jumped from $23.96 and $19.56 respectively.

The report found that the average hourly worker currently earns $18.78 per hour, which is over $6 short of the amount needed to afford a two-bedroom rental. This means that the average minimum wage worker would need to work almost 97 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom.