Many policymakers who support increases in the minimum wage point out that such policy will help solve the nation’s housing affordability crisis. However, according to a recently released report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, even in cities that have raised their hourly minimum wage, the amounts earned continue to fall well short of what is required to afford an apartment.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, at fourteen dollars and forty four cents, Emeryville, California has one of the nation’s highest minimum wages. That minimum wage translates into full time earnings of about thirty thousand dollars a year, but renters there need to earn nearly thirty two dollars an hour working full time to afford a typical one bedroom apartment.
It would take more than forty dollars an hour to afford a two bedroom unit. In fact, there is no state in the country in which a minimum wage worker can afford a two bedroom apartment. In Chicago, the minimum wage is ten dollars an hour, but workers need to earn nearly twenty dollars to afford a one bedroom apartment.
Though many apartments have been developed over the last few years in the U.S., between two thousand and twelve and 2014, 80 percent were in the luxury category according to CoStar.
