Housing minimum wage (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
#Roommates, it seems that the struggles for minimum wage workers continue to get worse, as a new report reveals a very unfortunate reality. According to a new housing report, full-time minimum wage workers are unable to afford rent anywhere in the United States—which is the latest indication that a minimum wage increase is long overdue.
@CNBC reports, the National Low Income Housing Coalition recently released its annual “Out Of Reach” report and the findings for minimum wage workers are eye-opening. The report confirmed that full-time minimum wage employees in the U.S. are not financially able to afford a two-bedroom apartment in any state in the country. The same report also found that in 93% of counties in the United States, full-time minimum wage employees couldn’t afford a one-bedroom apartment either. Those figures further translate to the average worker needing to work almost 97 hours a week to be able to afford proper housing, which is more working hours than that of two full-time jobs.
If you’re wondering how the NLIHC came up with those numbers, their report defines affordability as “the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to spend no more than 30% of their income on rent,” which means that in 2021, full-time minimum wage employees need to earn at least $24.90 an hour for a two-bedroom apartment and $20.40 an hour for a one-bedroom. That’s a staggering increase from $23.96 for a two-bedroom and $19.56 for a one-bedroom just last year. The current minimum wage average is $18.78 per hour, over $6 less of what’s required to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment.
Additionally, there is also a disturbing racial element to the housing report, as it stated that Black and Latino employees spend more on their rent at over 30%, but make far less than their White counterparts, who only spend 25% of their income on housing.
These new factors are said to have been made worse due to millions of full-time minimum wage workers losing their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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