Minimum Wage vs. Rent: How Many Workers It Takes to Afford a One-Bedroom in the 50 Largest U.S. Cities
Across the 50 largest US cities, no full-time minimum wage job covers a one-bedroom at 30% of income. In Atlanta, it would take 5 minimum wage earners to afford a single unit.
There is no large US city where a full-time minimum wage job covers a one-bedroom apartment at the standard measure of affordability, 30% of income. Across the 50 largest cities, the typical minimum wage worker would have to spend far more than that on rent, and in the tightest markets it would take several of them, pooling entire paychecks, to afford a single apartment.
This study pairs RentDataNow's typical one-bedroom rent in each city (anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, May 2026) with the 2026 minimum wage in that city's state. Rankings run from the widest gap to the narrowest.
In Atlanta, GA, a one-bedroom runs $1,851 against a state minimum wage of $7.25. That is 147% of a full-time minimum wage income, meaning it would take 5 minimum wage earners sharing the unit to keep rent at 30% of their combined pay.
| Rank | City | Typical 1-BR rent | State min. wage | Share of min-wage income | Workers needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Atlanta, GA | $1,851 | $7.25 | 147% | 5 |
| 2 | Nashville, TN | $1,785 | $7.25 | 142% | 5 |
| 3 | Raleigh, NC | $1,639 | $7.25 | 130% | 5 |
| 4 | Dallas, TX | $1,603 | $7.25 | 128% | 5 |
| 5 | Philadelphia, PA | $1,514 | $7.25 | 120% | 5 |
| 6 | Fort Worth, TX | $1,455 | $7.25 | 116% | 4 |
| 7 | Austin, TX | $1,450 | $7.25 | 115% | 4 |
| 8 | Charlotte, NC | $1,447 | $7.25 | 115% | 4 |
| 9 | Houston, TX | $1,320 | $7.25 | 105% | 4 |
| 10 | Boston, MA | $2,698 | $15.00 | 104% | 4 |
| 11 | San Antonio, TX | $1,266 | $7.25 | 101% | 4 |
| 12 | Memphis, TN | $1,258 | $7.25 | 100% | 4 |
| 13 | San Jose, CA | $2,908 | $16.90 | 99% | 4 |
| 14 | San Francisco, CA | $2,842 | $16.90 | 97% | 4 |
| 15 | New York, NY | $2,732 | $17.00 | 93% | 4 |
| 16 | Indianapolis, IN | $1,159 | $7.25 | 92% | 4 |
| 17 | Louisville, KY | $1,159 | $7.25 | 92% | 4 |
| 18 | San Diego, CA | $2,565 | $16.90 | 88% | 3 |
| 19 | Miami, FL | $2,103 | $14.00 | 87% | 3 |
| 20 | El Paso, TX | $1,074 | $7.25 | 85% | 3 |
| 21 | Milwaukee, WI | $1,033 | $7.25 | 82% | 3 |
| 22 | Oklahoma City, OK | $1,015 | $7.25 | 81% | 3 |
| 23 | Virginia Beach, VA | $1,760 | $12.77 | 80% | 3 |
| 24 | Los Angeles, CA | $2,285 | $16.90 | 78% | 3 |
| 25 | Tulsa, OK | $970 | $7.25 | 77% | 3 |
| 26 | Las Vegas, NV | $1,575 | $12.00 | 76% | 3 |
| 27 | Tampa, FL | $1,834 | $14.00 | 76% | 3 |
| 28 | Minneapolis, MN | $1,449 | $11.41 | 73% | 3 |
| 29 | Long Beach, CA | $2,095 | $16.90 | 72% | 3 |
| 30 | Denver, CO | $1,874 | $15.16 | 71% | 3 |
| 31 | Oakland, CA | $2,062 | $16.90 | 70% | 3 |
| 32 | Washington, DC | $2,192 | $18.40 | 69% | 3 |
| 33 | Portland, OR | $1,785 | $15.55 | 66% | 3 |
| 34 | Chicago, IL | $1,705 | $15.00 | 66% | 3 |
| 35 | Wichita, KS | $820 | $7.25 | 65% | 3 |
| 36 | Mesa, AZ | $1,708 | $15.15 | 65% | 3 |
| 37 | Colorado Springs, CO | $1,621 | $15.16 | 62% | 3 |
| 38 | Columbus, OH | $1,151 | $11.00 | 60% | 3 |
| 39 | Baltimore, MD | $1,550 | $15.00 | 60% | 2 |
| 40 | Sacramento, CA | $1,739 | $16.90 | 59% | 2 |
| 41 | Jacksonville, FL | $1,420 | $14.00 | 59% | 2 |
| 42 | Seattle, WA | $1,731 | $17.13 | 58% | 2 |
| 43 | Albuquerque, NM | $1,128 | $12.00 | 54% | 2 |
| 44 | Phoenix, AZ | $1,244 | $15.15 | 47% | 2 |
| 45 | Kansas City, MO | $1,226 | $15.00 | 47% | 2 |
| 46 | Omaha, NE | $1,151 | $15.00 | 44% | 2 |
| 47 | Tucson, AZ | $1,143 | $15.15 | 44% | 2 |
| 48 | Fresno, CA | $1,274 | $16.90 | 43% | 2 |
| 49 | Bakersfield, CA | $1,257 | $16.90 | 43% | 2 |
| 50 | Detroit, MI | $987 | $13.73 | 41% | 2 |
Key findings
- Atlanta, GA has the widest gap of any large city: a typical one-bedroom eats 147% of a full-time minimum wage income, requiring 5 earners to afford one unit.
- Not one of the 50 largest cities is affordable on minimum wage. Rent exceeds the 30% threshold in all 50 of them, so every one requires at least two minimum wage earners to keep a one-bedroom at 30% of combined income.
- In 38 of the 50 cities, the gap is wide enough to need three or more minimum wage workers pooling full paychecks for one apartment.
- On average across these cities, it takes about 2.7 minimum wage incomes to afford one one-bedroom apartment.
- The narrowest gap is in Detroit, MI, where a higher state minimum wage and lower rent still leave a one-bedroom at 41% of income, above the affordable line.
What "workers needed" means
The 30% rule is the federal benchmark for housing affordability: spend more than 30% of gross income on rent and you are officially "rent-burdened." A full-time minimum wage job is 2,080 hours a year. Divide the annual one-bedroom rent by 30% and by those 2,080 hours and you get the hourly wage a renter would actually need. Divide that by the minimum wage and you get the number of minimum wage earners it would take to reach it. In Atlanta, that math lands at 5.
The states that hold the line at the $7.25 federal minimum wage produce the largest gaps, because their rents have kept climbing while the wage floor has not moved since 2009. States that have raised their own minimums narrow the gap, but in no large city do they close it.
Where minimum wage stretches furthest
The narrowest gaps cluster in states that both raised their minimum wage and kept rents lower. Even there, a full-time minimum wage worker still spends more than 30% of income on a one-bedroom, they are just closer to the line than a renter in Atlanta. Click any city in the table to open its full RentDataNow page, with rent by bedroom size, 10-year history, and the salary needed to afford the typical unit.
For each of the 50 most populous US cities, we take RentDataNow's typical one-bedroom rent for May 2026. Rent is anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), a smoothed repeat-rent index for the middle tier of each city's market; the bedroom-level figure is scaled to the city's ZORI median using the same method shown on our city pages.
We pair each city with the 2026 minimum wage in its state (the standard large-employer rate; states at or below the federal floor use $7.25). A full-time job is 2,080 hours a year, so gross monthly income is the hourly wage times 2,080 divided by 12. The affordability benchmark is the federal standard: rent should be no more than 30% of gross income.
From there: the "share of income" is annual rent divided by annual minimum-wage income. The "wage needed" is the hourly pay required to keep the one-bedroom at 30% of income (annual rent divided by 0.30, divided by 2,080 hours). "Workers needed" is the one-bedroom rent divided by the affordable rent for one earner, rounded up, i.e. how many minimum wage incomes it takes to cover the unit at 30%.
We use the statewide minimum wage as a common baseline. Some cities (for example Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, and Flagstaff) set higher local minimums, so a worker there may earn more than the state floor; where that is true, the real local gap is narrower than the state-minimum figure shown.
The full underlying dataset is available as a CSV for verification, republishing, or extending the analysis.
↓ minimum-wage-vs-rent-largest-us-cities.csvThese findings and the accompanying dataset are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. You are free to republish, including commercially, as long as you credit RentDataNow and link back to this page so readers can verify the underlying data.
RentDataNow Data Team (2026). "Minimum Wage vs. Rent: How Many Workers It Takes to Afford a One-Bedroom in the 50 Largest U.S. Cities." RentDataNow. Retrieved from https://rentdatanow.com/studies/minimum-wage-vs-rent-largest-us-cities
- ZORI (Zillow Observed Rent Index) — monthly city-level median rent, smoothed repeat-rent methodology. Public download at zillow.com/research/data.
- State minimum wage rates, 2026 — state labor departments and the US Department of Labor; federal minimum wage $7.25 where no higher state rate applies.
- US Census ACS 5-year estimates — Table B01003 (total population), used to rank the 50 largest cities.
- Affordability benchmark — the 30%-of-income "rent-burdened" threshold (US Department of Housing and Urban Development); full-time hours convention (2,080/year) follows the NLIHC "Out of Reach" methodology.
- RentDataNow city pages — every city in the table links to its full rent history, bedroom breakdown, and salary-vs-rent analysis.
RentDataNow publishes original research grounded in ZORI rent data, BLS wage data, HUD Fair Market Rents, and US Census demographics. Every study includes the underlying numbers, methodology, and sources so readers can verify or extend the analysis.
RentDataNow is an independent service and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Zillow Group, Inc., the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or any government agency. ZORI (Zillow Observed Rent Index), the American Community Survey, Fair Market Rents, and other product names are trademarks of their respective owners, used here for identification only. Figures are provided "as is" without warranty of accuracy or completeness, and any reuse is at your own risk. See our Terms of Service for full terms.