A modest two-bedroom in Florida now comes with a wage requirement that sounds more like a professional salary than an hourly one: $37.93. That puts Florida 10th highest nationally, while the West Palm Beach area pushes the number to $43.35 an hour.
The figures come from the National Low Income Housing Coalition's latest Out of Reach report, which defines a "housing wage" as the hourly pay a full-time worker needs to afford a rental at HUD's Fair Market Rent while keeping housing costs at or below 30% of income. The report says even workers in some of the nation's most common jobs struggle to reach that benchmark.
West Palm Beach Renters Face An Even Steeper Climb
As reported by WPTV, the West Palm Beach figure is $43.35 per hour, or roughly $90,168 a year for someone working full time. The station also reported that rents in the West Palm Beach area run about 29% above the national average.
Current market listings help explain why the local number is so high. Apartments.com lists the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in West Palm Beach at about $2,426 per month, before utilities, parking, deposits and the other small financial ambushes that tend to arrive with a lease.
Common Local Jobs Fall Well Below The Housing Wage
The coalition's Florida data puts the gap in sharper terms: median hourly pay is $18.53 for nursing assistants, $17.04 for janitors, $16.81 for retail salespeople, $16.70 for home health and personal care aides, and $14.37 for fast-food and counter workers. A Florida worker earning the state minimum wage would need to work 108 hours a week, or hold roughly 2.7 full-time jobs, to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the report's benchmark.
Florida's current minimum wage is $14 per hour, according to the Florida Department of Commerce. It is scheduled to rise to $15 on September 30, but even that increase would leave the statewide two-bedroom housing wage at more than two and a half times the minimum wage.
The study is not saying every apartment costs exactly the benchmark amount, but it does put a hard number on the affordability squeeze facing renters. In Florida, a two-bedroom home requires an annual income of nearly $79,000 statewide, and the West Palm Beach area demands an even higher paycheck before a renter can meet the standard of keeping housing costs below 30% of income.
