Justice
Minimum Wage Still Can’t Pay for a Two-Bedroom Apartment Anywhere
The 30th anniversary edition of the National Low Income Housing Coalition report, “Out of Reach,” shows that housing affordability is getting worse, not better.
Headlines about the U.S. housing crisis tend to focus on the extremes: the median price for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is now $3,700. In New York City, it’s nearly $3,000.
But the problem isn’t just in the Bay Area or Manhattan: As rent peaks in superstar cities grow, housing affordability gaps in the rest of the country have widened, too. Today, there is not one U.S. state, metropolitan area, or county in which a minimum wage worker who clocks 40 hours a week can afford a two-bedroom apartment. And only in 28 of the country’s counties can a 40-hour-a-week minimum wage worker afford a one-bedroom.