Minimum-Wage Workers Face Uphill Struggle to Make Rent MABA MassachusettsRealEstate FirstTimeHomeBuyers MaBuyerAgent

 To afford the $1,599 median-priced apartment, the ordinary minimum-wage earner in the U.S. would need to put in one hundred and six hours each week, according to a recent Redfin report. That’s astoundingly higher than the average forty hour work week. And according to Daryl Fairweather, Chief Economist at Redfin. “It’s virtually impossible for a minimum-wage worker to afford the typical apartment on their own.”

 The analysis of median asking rentals for the three months ending January 31, 2025, and 2024 yearly wage data served as the foundation for Redfin’s research. If 30% of a minimum wage renter’s income is spent on rent, we consider the flat to be affordable.

 Although it has become more difficult to adhere to as housing costs have skyrocketed, it is generally advised in personal finance that people should spend no more than thirty percent of their income on housing. To make ends meet, many minimum-wage workers spend more than thirty percent of their income. Additionally, a large number of them rent residences that are below average.

Minimum-Wage Workers Finding More Rental Affordability

 Since 2009, the federal minimum wage of seven dollars and twenty five cents has remained unchanged. However, the Economic Policy Institute reports that throughout the past ten years, the effective minimum wage has gone up in thirty states. It should be noted that Redfin assumed a nationwide effective minimum wage of eleven dollars and fifty nine cents for 2025 in this analysis. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, young persons who work in the service sector and earn less than the minimum wage are more likely to be women than men.

 The average minimum-wage worker would have needed to put in one hundred and twenty five hours per week nineteen more hours than they do now to afford the average apartment when the median asking rent peaked in August 2022 at one thousand seven hundred and four dollars. The median asking rent in the U.S. is currently six point two percent (one hundred and five dollars) below its record high and isn’t increasing nearly as quickly as it did during the pandemic. However, compared to pre-pandemic levels (January 2020), it is twenty point four percent (two hundred and seventy one dollars) greater.

Which U.S. States Boast the Least & Most Hours Necessary for Minimum-Wage Workers?

 These states are at the top of the list because their minimum salaries are among the lowest in the country, and their rents are not among the lowest. The typical asking rent in New Hampshire, for instance, is thirty two percent higher than the one thousand five hundred and ninety nine dollars national median.

 In order to afford the one thousand eighty five dollars median-priced condo in South Dakota, an individual making the minimum salary of eleven dollars and twenty cents would need to put in seventy five hours each week. Of all the states Redfin examined, that is the one with the fewest hours. At seventy six hours, Missouri and Nebraska follow.

All of these states have asking rents that are below average and minimum salaries that are not among the lowest in the nation. For instance, the median asking rent in South Dakota is thirty two point one percent less than the median rent nationwide.

State-Level Summary: Minimum Wage Rental Affordability

Top Ten States w/ the Least Hours Needed to Afford the Median-Priced Unit

 Assuming they were renting the median-priced apartment in the U.S., the ordinary minimum-wage worker would need to work thirty two hours a week just to pay the rent, leaving no money for additional expenses. To afford the median-priced apartment in New Hampshire, a person making the seven dollars and twenty five cent minimum wage would need to put in two hundred and twenty four hours per week. Of all the states Redfin examined, that state had the most hours. Idaho (one hundred and sixty five hours) and Pennsylvania (one hundred and eighty three hours) are next.

Top Ten States w/ the Most Hours Needed to Afford the Median-Priced Unit

Note: The tables above include the forty one U.S. states (plus Washington, D.C.) for which there is sufficient data. Wage data is as of 2024 and asking rent data is as of the three months ending Jan. 31, 2025.

To read the full report, including more data, charts, and methodology, click here.

The post Minimum-Wage Workers Face Uphill Struggle to Make Rent  first appeared on The MortgagePoint.

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