Cities where you need to earn 4 times the minimum wage to afford rent

A common guideline advises against spending more than 30% of your earnings on housing costs. However, that’s not feasible for workers earning the minimum wage in many large U.S. cities, according to a recent Clever Real Estate report.

In seven major cities, you’d need to earn more than quadruple the federal minimum wage of $7.25 to afford the fair market rent without spending more than 30% of your income on housing or working a second job, Clever found.

To determine the minimum wage needed to afford a fair market priced rental in the 50 largest U.S. metros, the report analyzed wage and housing data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Clever follows HUD’s definition of fair market rent, which is the price at which 60% of similar units in the area rent for more than the listed amount and 40% rent for less.

Here are seven major U.S. metros where workers would need to make quadruple the minimum wage in order to comfortably afford rent, according to Clever Real Estate.

• Fair market rent: $1,653
• Hourly minimum wage: $7.25
• Necessary hourly minimum wage: $31.79

• Fair market rent: $1,650
• Hourly minimum wage: $7.25
• Necessary hourly minimum wage: $31.73

• Fair market rent: $1,650
• Hourly minimum wage: $7.25
• Necessary hourly minimum wage: $31.73

• Fair market rent: $1,647
• Hourly minimum wage: $7.25
• Necessary hourly minimum wage: $31.67

• Fair market rent: $1,606
• Hourly minimum wage: $7.25
• Necessary hourly minimum wage: $30.88

• Fair market rent: $1,592
• Hourly minimum wage: $7.25
• Necessary hourly minimum wage: $30.62

• Fair market rent: $1,512
• Hourly minimum wage: $7.25
• Necessary hourly minimum wage: $29.08

In all of the previous cities, a one-bedroom dwelling would need to be priced at $377 a month for a minimum wage worker to comfortably afford rent, the data shows. But a unit at that price may be hard to come by.

Since 2019 alone, rent prices across the country have risen 30.4%, according to a May analysis from Zillow and StreetEasy, while the federal minimum wage has sat at $7.25 per hour since 2009.

Spending more than 30% of your income on rent, also known as being cost-burdened, is becoming more common for workers across income levels, according to a 2024 report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

A record 22.4 million renters were considered cost-burdened as of 2022, and around 12 million of those renters were severely cost-burdened, meaning they spend over 50% of their income on housing and utilities, according to the report.

“Ensuring that everyone has equal access to safe, affordable, stable housing is one of the nation’s most pressing challenges, and one that will require buy-in from all sectors and levels of government to resolve,” the report states.

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