Minimum Wage Workers: Barely Getting By

“For decades, having a decent, safe place to call home has been a cornerstone of opportunity in America- a place where we can raise our families, connect to our communities, and pursue better opportunities for ourselves and our children.”- HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan

Having a decent, safe place to call home is no longer the given for working people in America. The lack of affordable housing has lead to poor housing conditions, rent burdens on the poor, and overcrowding in the form of doubling-up. Americans can no longer rely on affordable housing and housing assistance programs to get by. It turns out that public housing has not been built in decades! In fact, the public housing stock is dwindling due to demolition and the lack of federal funding. The shortage of affordable housing is negatively impacting the housing stability of America’s lowest-income households.

Americans, working full-time minimum wage jobs, cannot afford rents in the private market. Here is a simple map to really convince you of this crisis. It shows how many hours per week a minimum wage worker in every state would need to work in order to afford the rent and utilities of a market rate, 2-bedroom apartment.

For instance, a person, living in California, would need to work 130 hours per week to afford a 2-bedroom apartment. Yes, you heard me right; 130 hours! That’s 130 hours of flipping mechanically separated meat! Keep in mind, there are 168 hours in a week.

In 17 states across the country, minimum wage workers would have to work more than 88 hours per week. In 19 states, workers would have to work 71 to 88 hours and in 15 states, they would have to work 70 hours or less.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that something is wrong. We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and yet millions of U.S. citizens are unable to rent a 2-bedroom apartment without outside help. Frankly, it’s embarrassing. The disparity between what wageworkers can afford to pay and what is available for them in the private market is shocking. It is ridiculous how little one can afford living on a minimum wage income.

Excuse me, Shaun Donovan, but how can we “pursue better opportunities for ourselves and our children”, when we cannot even afford an apartment to live in? Not everyone has the privilege of going to college and getting a good education. Minimum wage earners should at least have the privilege of living in a decent apartment to raise their families in.

Let’s not forget that millions of wageworkers work FULL-TIME jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average wage earner works 34.5 hours per week. And this is even with our terrible economy; millions have seen their hours cut back.

It is discouraging to know that even if you work a full time job, you can still not afford a market rate, two-bedroom apartment. This country should reward those who work full time jobs (even minimum wage jobs) with adequate housing. Every working American should have a decent place to call home.

It is not very surprising to hear that 2.15 million adults and 1.35 million children are prone to experience homelessness in a given year. I wonder how that happened?