You Can’t Afford Rent And Cheapest Utility Company Bill On 40-Hour Min. Wage Job

You can’t have a decent home if you work for minimum wage. But what would the hourly income need to be for a family to afford a simple two-bedroom apartment in your state?

Wages Needed For Rent By State

A National Low Income Housing Coalition?(NLIHC)?report?released last week says?the federal minimum wage is $7.25, but that amount is not enough to afford a decent home ? not by a long shot.?Keep in mind, the people who work for minimum wage are often white divorced mothers with children.

The image of a teen working for extra spending money long ago became an urban myth.

The minimum wage and housing wage (which assumes the cheapest utility company rate) draws a totally different picture. Look at this U.S. map of the housing wage below to find your state. And notice the lowest hourly wage you would need for that two-bedroom apartment in any state is above $13.00!

 

Wage Needed For Apartment And Cheapest Utility Company Bill Image Courtesy Of  NLIHC. http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/OOR2014_MW-Map.pdf
Wage Needed For Apartment And Cheapest Utility Company Bill. Image Courtesy Of NLIHC.

Hours Work For Rent And Cheapest Utility Company

I suppose that a person could work more hours to be able to get a home ? but exactly how many hours would that be? According to the NLIHC report,

“At $7.25 a person would have to work 85 hours a week for a one-bedroom apartment and 102 hours a week to afford that two-bedroom dream.

In 13 states plus the District of Columbia a person would have to find a job paying more than $20 an hour to get the two-bedroom. And the gap between the minimum wage and housing wage continues to grow.”

National Housing Trust Fund

The National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) can give communities the money they need to build or rehab or maintain affordable housing for the extremely and very low income households.

So what can we do?

  • First we need to become aware of the housing-minimum wage gap
  • Then we can support funding the NHTF
  • Finally we must stay on top of the problem by keeping watch on the?NLIHC.

Home ownership is out of the question. Is it too much to work hard in exchange for a modest two-bedroom apartment for your family? Apparently so.

Featured Image Credit:?NLIHC