Housing Wage Calculator
Enter a monthly rent to see the hourly wage needed to afford it — and how many full-time jobs that takes at a given wage.
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How this is calculated
The housing wage is the hourly pay a worker would need for a given rent to cost no more than 30% of income. Annual income needed is monthly rent times 12, divided by 0.30. Dividing by annual hours worked — 2,080 for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year — gives the hourly wage. The full-time-jobs comparison always uses 2,080-hour jobs.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition publishes the housing wage for every state, metro area and county each year in its Out of Reach report, using HUD's fair market rents.
Related terms
- Housing Wage
The hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rental home at HUD's Fair Market Rent without spending more than 30% of income on housing, as calculated by NLIHC.
- Fair Market Rent (FMR)
HUD's annual estimate of what a modest, standard-quality rental home costs in a local market, including utilities, set at the 40th percentile of recent movers' rents.
- 30% Rule (Affordability Standard)
The widely used benchmark that housing is affordable when a household spends no more than 30% of its gross income on rent or mortgage costs plus utilities.
- Housing Cost Burden
The condition of a household that spends more than 30% of its gross income on housing costs, including rent or mortgage payments and utilities. Spending more than 50% is called a severe cost burden.
- Essential Workers
People whose jobs keep a community running, such as nurses, teachers, first responders, grocery and transit workers. Housing policy increasingly targets them because many cannot afford to live near where they work.