The Least and Most Affordable Big Cities for Minimum Wage Earners 2022

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By Joe Roberts

Aug 05, 2022

3 min read

Minimum wage is a hot-button issue these days. Everyone from politicians to podcast hosts is fiercely debating the subject—and with good reason. The US hasn’t raised its minimum wage since 2009 when it was set at $7.25.^[1] Meanwhile, living costs across the country have only gone up. The result is that the federal minimum wage is no longer livable in many places.

Luckily, some cities and states have set their own minimum wages to try to solve this problem, some with more success than others. To find out which US cities are the most affordable for people who make minimum wage, we compared the average rent in the US’s most populous cities to the minimum wage in those cities.

We found that the federal minimum wage just doesn’t cut it in most places. In the least livable cities, you’d have to work close to 200 hours every month while making minimum wage just to pay rent—let alone buy groceries, save up for a house, or afford hobbies. Luckily, the situation isn’t that bleak everywhere.

Whether you’re looking for an affordable place to move to or you’re just trying to get informed before you debate your uncle at the next family gathering, our analysis provides all the information you need.

Graph comparing city's minimum and hourly earnings needed in order to afford rent in the city.

Key findings

Minimum wage is higher than $7.25 in all of the 10 best cities for minimum wage earners. No city with a $7.25 minimum wage was determined livable.
Despite its high minimum wage, Honolulu is the least livable city for minimum wage earners. You would have to work 24 eight-hour shifts (192 hours) in a month to make enough money for rent.
Cleveland, Ohio, is the most affordable large city in the country for minimum-wage earners. The city’s minimum wage is set at $9.30 while its average monthly rent is only $619.50.
Even in cities where minimum wage could cover rent, most apartment communities wouldn’t accept someone making that city’s minimum wage as a tenant.
Many cities have traded places in our rankings since last year’s analysis. This is at least partially due to shifts in rental rates across the country.
Only one California city (Irvine) is among the least liveable cities for minimum-wage earners. Rent in many California cities is higher than the rest of the country, but California’s minimum wage is much higher than the federal minimum. Additionally, some California cities have set their own minimum wages to keep up with living costs.
Three California cities (Bakersfield, Fresno, and Stockton) were among the best cities for minimum-wage earners.

Looking for a job in a new city?

If you’re planning to move to a new city but want to switch careers or find a new job before you do, you need to prepare in advance. Here are a few helpful tips to help you find work before or soon after you move to your new location.

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*Based on a 3-bedroom across-country move.

Methodology

For our rankings, we analyzed the 75 most populous cities in the United States according to the US Census Bureau.^[1] Our rankings were based solely on each city’s minimum wage and how much it would cost on average to rent a one-bedroom apartment in that city. We pulled our rent data from Apartment List.^[2] For each city’s minimum wage, we pulled numbers from The Economic Policy Institute.^[3]

Additional expenses like food, utilities, insurance, entertainment, and transportation had no impact on our rankings. We also didn’t include crime statistics, unemployment rates, access to government services, or other quality of life factors in our methodology.

Several cities have minimum wages that vary based on business size. For this list, we focused on larger businesses, so if a city had a minimum wage of $8 for businesses of 50 employees or fewer and a minimum wage of $10 for all other businesses, we used the $10 minimum wage for our rankings.

Additionally, since apartment communities often only accept tenants whose annual income is equal to 40 times their monthly rent,^[4] we also calculated how much people need to make annually in order to get a lease. We then calculated the hourly earnings required for acceptance from that annual income.

Recommended resources

The worst cities for minimum wage earners

Rank	City	State	Population	Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment	Hourly minimum wage	Monthly hours worked at pre-tax minimum wage to afford rent	Hourly earnings required for acceptance into apartment communities
1	Urban Honolulu	Hawaii	345,055	$1,948.00	$10.10	192.87	$37.46
2	Austin	Texas	979,263	$1,377.50	$7.25	190.00	$26.49
3	Plano	Texas	285,849	$1,321.50	$7.25	182.28	$25.41
4	Atlanta	Georgia	506,804	$1,293.00	$7.25	178.34	$24.87
5	Raleigh	North Carolina	474,708	$1,229.50	$7.25	169.59	$23.64
6	Irvine	California	287,387	$2,452.50	$15.00	163.50	$47.16
7	Charlotte	North Carolina	885,707	$1,174.00	$7.25	161.93	$22.58
8	Nashville-Davidson	Tennessee	668,580	$1,162.50	$7.25	160.34	$22.36
9	Durham	North Carolina	279,447	$1,093.00	$7.25	150.76	$21.02
10	Arlington	Texas	398,860	$1,073.00	$7.25	148.00	$20.63

The best cities for minimum wage earners

Rank	City	State	Population	Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment	Hourly minimum wage	Monthly hours worked at pre-tax minimum wage to afford rent	Hourly earnings required for acceptance into apartment communities
1	Cleveland	Ohio	380,989	$619.50	$9.30	66.61	$11.91
2	Bakersfield	California	384,159	$1,031.00	$15.00	68.73	$19.83
3	Detroit	Michigan	670,052	$678.50	$9.87	68.74	$13.05
4	Fresno	California	531,581	$1,041.50	$15.00	69.43	$20.03
5	Tucson	Arizona	548,082	$910.50	$12.80	71.13	$17.51
6	St. Paul	Minnesota	308,096	$918.00	$12.50	73.44	$17.65
7	St. Louis	Missouri	300,576	$842.00	$11.15	75.52	$16.19
8	Minneapolis	Minnesota	429,605	$1,095.50	$14.25	76.88	$21.07
9	Cincinnati	Ohio	303,954	$715.00	$9.30	76.88	$13.75
10	Stockton	California	312,682	$1,170.00	$15.00	78.00	$20.63

Sources

Paycor, “Minimum Wage by State and 2022 Increases,” November 29, 2021. Accessed March 8, 2022.
United States Census Bureau, “Total Population.” Accessed March 3, 2022.
Apartment List, “Data & Rent Estimates.” Accessed March 3, 2022.
The Economic Policy Institute, “Minimum Wage Tracker,” January 1, 2022. Accessed March 3, 2022.
ForRent.com, “How Much Rent Can I Afford?” Accessed March 3, 2022.

Minimum wage livability by city

Rank	City	State	Population	Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment	Hourly minimum wage	Monthly hours worked at pre-tax minimum wage to afford rent
1	Urban Honolulu CDP	Hawaii	345,055	$1,948.00	$10.10	192.9
2	Austin	Texas	979,263	$1,377.50	$7.25	190.0
3	Plano	Texas	285,849	$1,321.50	$7.25	182.3
4	Atlanta	Georgia	506,804	$1,293.00	$7.25	178.3
5	Raleigh	North Carolina	474,708	$1,229.50	$7.25	169.6
6	Irvine	California	287,387	$2,452.50	$15.00	163.5
7	Charlotte	North Carolina	885,707	$1,174.00	$7.25	161.9
8	Nashville-Davidson	Tennessee	668,580	$1,162.50	$7.25	160.3
9	Durham	North Carolina	279,447	$1,093.00	$7.25	150.8
10	Arlington	Texas	398,860	$1,073.00	$7.25	148.0
11	Dallas	Texas	1,343,565	$1,066.00	$7.25	147.0
12	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	1,584,064	$1,054.50	$7.25	145.4
13	Fort Worth	Texas	913,656	$1,038.00	$7.25	143.2
14	San Francisco	California	881,549	$2,287.50	$16.32	140.2
15	Miami	Florida	467,968	$1,398.00	$10.00	139.8
16	Boston	Massachusetts	694,295	$1,951.00	$14.25	136.9
17	Corpus Christi	Texas	326,590	$986.50	$7.25	136.1
18	Henderson	Nevada	320,190	$1,304.00	$9.75	133.7
19	San Antonio	Texas	1,547,250	$966.00	$7.25	133.2
20	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	300,281	$961.50	$7.25	132.6
21	Houston	Texas	2,316,797	$959.00	$7.25	132.3
22	Greensboro	North Carolina	296,725	$954.50	$7.25	131.7
23	New Orleans	Louisiana	390,144	$954.00	$7.25	131.6
24	Orlando	Florida	287,435	$1,291.50	$10.00	129.2
25	Tampa	Florida	399,690	$1,291.00	$10.00	129.1
26	Memphis	Tennessee	651,088	$924.50	$7.25	127.5
27	Virginia Beach	Virginia	449,974	$1,398.00	$11.00	127.1
28	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma	655,158	$905.00	$7.25	124.8
29	New York City	New York	8,336,817	$1,807.50	$15.00	120.5
30	Lexington-Fayette urban county	Kentucky	323,152	$871.00	$7.25	120.1
31	Indianapolis	Indiana	870,340	$849.00	$7.25	117.1
32	El Paso	Texas	681,729	$843.50	$7.25	116.3
33	San Jose	California	1,021,786	$1,856.00	$16.20	114.6
34	Washington	District of Columbia	705,749	$1,718.50	$15.20	113.1
35	San Diego	California	1,423,852	$1,694.50	$15.00	113.0
36	Louisville/Jefferson County	Kentucky	617,630	$818.50	$7.25	112.9
37	Jacksonville	Florida	911,528	$1,092.50	$10.00	109.3
38	Milwaukee	Wisconsin	590,157	$784.50	$7.25	108.2
39	Las Vegas	Nevada	651,297	$1,053.00	$9.75	108.0
40	Oakland	California	433,044	$1,625.50	$15.06	107.9
41	Anaheim	California	350,351	$1,608.50	$15.00	107.2
42	Tulsa	Oklahoma	401,760	$775.50	$7.25	107.0
43	Los Angeles	California	3,979,537	$1,590.50	$15.00	106.0
44	Riverside	California	331,369	$1,561.00	$15.00	104.1
45	Newark	New Jersey	281,999	$1,336.50	$13.00	102.8
46	Columbus	Ohio	902,073	$956.00	$9.30	102.8
47	Aurora	Colorado	379,312	$1,285.00	$12.56	102.3
48	Anchorage	Alaska	288,000	$1,047.00	$10.34	101.3
49	Santa Ana	California	332,332	$1,512.50	$15.00	100.8
50	Chula Vista	California	274,485	$1,496.50	$15.00	99.8
51	Mesa	Arizona	517,981	$1,262.50	$12.80	98.6
52	Omaha	Nebraska	478,203	$877.50	$9.00	97.5
53	Long Beach	California	462,645	$1,452.00	$15.00	96.8
54	Seattle	Washington	753,655	$1,620.50	$17.27	93.8
55	Wichita	Kansas	389,914	$678.00	$7.25	93.5
56	Portland	Oregon	653,467	$1,176.50	$12.75	92.3
57	Lincoln	Nebraska	289,096	$818.50	$9.00	90.9
58	Colorado Springs	Colorado	478,215	$1,117.50	$12.56	89.0
59	Denver	Colorado	727,211	$1,410.00	$15.87	88.8
60	Sacramento	California	513,620	$1,313.00	$15.00	87.5
61	Phoenix	Arizona	1,680,988	$1,087.50	$12.80	85.0
62	Baltimore	Maryland	593,490	$1,053.50	$12.50	84.3
63	Chicago	Illinois	2,693,959	$1,254.00	$15.00	83.6
64	Albuquerque	New Mexico	560,504	$935.00	$11.50	81.3
65	Kansas City	Missouri	495,278	$873.00	$11.15	78.3
66	Stockton	California	312,682	$1,170.00	$15.00	78.0
67	Cincinnati	Ohio	303,954	$715.00	$9.30	76.9
68	Minneapolis	Minnesota	429,605	$1,095.50	$14.25	76.9
69	St. Louis	Missouri	300,576	$842.00	$11.15	75.5
70	St. Paul	Minnesota	308,096	$918.00	$12.50	73.4
71	Tucson	Arizona	548,082	$910.50	$12.80	71.1
72	Fresno	California	531,581	$1,041.50	$15.00	69.4
73	Detroit	Michigan	670,052	$678.50	$9.87	68.7
74	Bakersfield	California	384,159	$1,031.00	$15.00	68.7
75	Cleveland	Ohio	380,989	$619.50	$9.30	66.6

Written by

Joe Roberts

Joe Roberts is a professional writer with a degree in writing studies and over four years of copywriting experience. He previously worked at Overstock.com, where he wrote about furniture, home decor, and moving. Joe has moved all over Utah, so he knows his way around a moving truck—and he spends his time (and money) expanding his personal library so it will be even heavier next time he moves.