By Steven Hsiesh | Phoenix New Times
Arizonans making the state minimum wage must work two full-time jobs, effectively, to afford a market-value two-bedroom apartment, according to a national report released Tuesday.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s (NLIHC) on Thursday released its annual study on the gap between rental housing costs and income for working-class Americans. The report found that, in 90 percent of counties in the United States, full-time workers making $22.96 per hour or less cannot afford to live in a two-bedroom apartment.
The organization uses the fair market value for housing costs, as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). NLIHC’s report also uses the “30 percent of income” standard to define housing affordability, meaning it looks at whether people need to expend more than 30 percent of their income to rent an apartment.
