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  1. Housing
  2. Renting

The 10 Most (and Least) Affordable Cities for Rent on a Minimum Wage

By: Adam Hardy
Adam Hardy, expert in Personal finance, student loans, credit, job market, low-income finances, and Lead data journalist at Money
Adam Hardy
Lead data journalist | Joined May 2024
Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and many other outlets.
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Editor: Brad Tuttle
Brad Tuttle, expert in Personal finance, shopping, consumer trends, and Senior Editor at Money
Brad Tuttle
Senior Editor | Joined January 2014
Brad Tuttle is a senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.
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Published: Feb 03, 2023 4 min read
Collage of people doing daily activities in the same house as roommates
Eddie Lee / Money; Getty Images

High rents have forced a bleak ultimatum on minimum wage workers across the country seeking an affordable place to live: Get several roommates or several full-time jobs.

What the research says

Real-estate tech firm Zillow released a rent-affordability analysis this week that looks at the 50 largest cities in the U.S., comparing the local cost of rent for one- and two-bedroom units to the local minimum wage.

  • Nationwide, it takes 3.3 full-time minimum wage workers to reasonably afford a one-bedroom unit and 3.8 workers to afford a two-bedroom unit.
  • In other words, federal minimum wage workers need to find at least two other roommates to comfortably afford a one-bedroom apartment — or they would have to work 132 hours per week.