Here’s Where Minimum-Wage Workers Can Actually Afford Rent

American renter households are chronically burdened by their rent, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to recent census data. For people making minimum wage, finding affordable rent is particularly difficult.

Where are the most affordable cities for renters who earn minimum wage? To find out, a study by Clever, a real estate consultancy, analyzed federal, county and city data on minimum wages and typical fair-market one-bedroom rents in the 50 largest U.S. housing markets. (The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour was used in the analysis unless there was a higher local minimum wage in place, and the typical one-bedroom rent was based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Fair Market Rent (FMR) standard.)

Among the 50 markets studied, none were affordable based on the 30 percent threshold. Buffalo was the cheapest city for renters making the local minimum wage of $15 per hour. They would have to spend 39 percent of their income to afford a typical one-bedroom priced at $1,001 a month. For a Buffalo renter to comfortably afford that apartment, the local minimum wage would have to increase to $19.25 per hour.

The burden is much more significant in other cities, mainly in the South. Renters making federal minimum wage in Atlanta would need 132 percent of that income to afford a typical one-bedroom priced at $1,653 a month. Not too far behind were Nashville, Charlotte, N.C., and Austin, Texas, where renters would have to spend an amount equal to 131 percent of their income to make a one-bedroom affordable.

There was little good news for New Yorkers, either. With a minimum wage of $16 per hour and a typical one-bedroom going for $2,330, renters would have to spend 84 percent of their income to fit within the threshold of affordability.

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