State College residents have to make more than 3 times the minimum wage to afford rent
Full-time workers in the U.S. must earn more than 3.5 times the federal minimum hourly wage to afford typically priced, two-bedroom rental housing, according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
A U.S. worker would need to earn an average of $25.82 to afford rent, the report said. In Pennsylvania, the lowest hourly wage a worker could have to afford rent for a two-bedroom is $20.90.
The state’s non-tipped minimum wage is the same as the federal government’s, at $7.25. The commonwealth’s tipped cash minimum wage is $2.83 per hour.
The coalition publishes the “Out of Reach” report annually to document the “significant gap between renters’ wages and the cost of rental housing across the United States.”
The 2022 report defined affordable housing as costing no more than 30% of someone’s income. Full-time work refers to someone working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, and the report included rent affordability information for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and metropolitan areas.
Pennsylvania has the 27th-highest “housing wage” (the hourly wage someone needs to earn to be able to afford a rental home) in the U.S.
A Pennsylvania worker making minimum wage would need to work 115 hours per week, almost three full-time jobs, to afford two-bedroom rental housing.
The median household hourly wage is about $18.31 in State College, in 2020 dollars, per the U.S. Census Bureau. The per capita figure is $10.43, assuming a person works 40 hours per week.
It’s important to note the numbers given by the NLIHC are averages, and the statewide numbers include rental markets where the cost of living is significantly higher or lower than most areas in Pennsylvania.
What do Centre County residents need to make to afford rent?
The two-bedroom housing wage in State College (zip code 16801) is significantly higher than the commonwealth average, at $25 an hour. Boalsburg residents, in zip code 16827, need to make $25.19 an hour to make rent.
Here’s more NLIHC two-bedroom housing wage data in Centre County, by zip code:
16802: $25.38
16803: $25.77
16827: $25.19
16868: $25.77
16828: $21.73
16823: $20
16844: $19.62
16870: $18.85
16853: $17.50
You can search for more data on housing affordability by zip code online from the NLIHC.
