High Cost Low Wage

Report: R.I. ranks 18th highest in U.S. for rental costs
To afford a monthly rent of $961, a minimum-wage earner would have to work 82 hours per week, 52 weeks per year.

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island continues to be among the states with the highest rental costs in the country, rating 18th highest in a report released Tuesday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a housing advocacy group.

The report, Out of Reach 2015, found that all of the New England states were in the top 25 for rental costs. Massachusetts ranked 6th, Connecticut was 8th, Vermont was 13th, New Hampshire was 14th and Maine was 23rd. Hawaii had the highest rental costs in the country, and Puerto Rico the lowest.

"There is no state in the U.S. where a minimum-wage worker working full time can afford a one-bedroom apartment at the fair market rent," the report said. "...Overall job growth since the Great Recession has been heavily concentrated in low-wage communities, with 44 percent of new jobs in the recovery paying no more than $13.33 per hour."

In Rhode Island, the fair market rent (established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) for a two-bedroom apartment is $961, up from $928 in 2014, the report said.

"In order to afford this level of rent and utilities -- without paying more than 30 percent of income on housing -- a household must earn $3,204 monthly, or $38,452 annually." This means that Rhode Island's "housing wage" is $18.49 per hour, the amount necessary to afford the two-bedroom apartment if working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.

But in Rhode Island, a minimum wage worker earns $9 an hour, up from $8 in 2014, the report added. In order to afford a monthly rent of $961, a minimum-wage earner would have to work 82 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. "Or, a household must include 2.1 minimum wage earners working 40 hours per week year-round," the report said.

Rhode Island has 159,244 renter households, representing 39 percent of the population, and the estimated mean (average) wage for a renter is $12.48, the report added.