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Minimum wage won't pay rent
A study finds that a family working for the minimum can't afford a modest apartment.
By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published December 14, 2005
Tampa Bay area families with two full-time, minimum-wage workers can't afford even a modest apartment without going over budget, an advocacy group said Tuesday.
A report by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition concluded that a bay area family would need combined wages of $16.12 an hour to comfortably pay the local "fair market rent" of $838 per month for a two-bedroom apartment. By comparison, a two-earner family working at the state minimum wage of $6.15 an hour would earn $12.30 per hour.
Statewide, a family would need wages of $15.68 an hour to afford the typical rent for a two-bedroom apartment, which was $816 a month. Florida ranked 37th among U.S. states according to this affordability model.
The annual report, Out of Reach, debuted 16 years ago. Its findings are based in part on income and housing data collected by the federal government.
"Fair market rent," a figure calculated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is the estimated cost of rent and utilities for a modest, local apartment. The report considered a rental unit "affordable" if it consumed no more than 30 percent of a family's income. That is a rough guideline HUD uses in its housing assistance programs.
The states with the least affordable wage-to-housing-cost ratios were Hawaii, California, Massachusetts and New Jersey. The most affordable markets were West Virginia and Arkansas.
Florida's minimum wage will rise to $6.40 on Jan. 1.
[Last modified December 14, 2005, 00:14:15]
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