Yahoo Finance The Average Hours You Need To Work To Live Comfortably in Every State
Are you earning enough to get by or to get ahead? In other words, can you cover your bills and then have money left over to pay for things you want and to save for the future?
If you worked a 40-hour workweek earning the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, you would earn $15,080 a year before taxes and any other payroll deductions. That’s only a hair above the federal poverty line of $15,060.
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There’s been a push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour to provide workers with a living wage. Numerous states already have passed legislation that will gradually increase their minimum hourly wage to $15 or more, including California’s minimum wage recently increased to $20 an hour as of 2024. So, let’s say you make $15 per hour, with a 40-hour workweek, your annual pretax income would be $31,200.
That could be enough to get by, but if you made $15 per hour and wanted to have enough to pay for anything beyond essentials and to save, you’d have to work more than 40 hours a week.
Of course, how much you’d actually need to work to live comfortably would depend on your wages and the cost of living in your area. To give you an idea of what it would take, GOBankingRates crunched the numbers.
To determine the number of hours you would need to work to live comfortably in each state, GOBankingRates looked at the cost of living in all 50 states using data from the Missouri Economic and Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Cost of living factors included housing, groceries, utilities, transportation and healthcare. These factors were added up for an annual cost of living, which was doubled to come up with the annual salary needed to live comfortably. That figure is based on the 50/30/20 budget rule, which states that necessities should make up 50% of expenses. The other 30% goes to nonessential items, and 20% goes to savings.
GOBankingRates then divided the salary needed to live comfortably by the state’s median hourly wage to get the total number of hours needed to work to cover expenses, nonessential items and savings.
Alabama
Median hourly wage: $29.84
Total annual necessities cost: $31,697
Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,395
Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.86
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Alaska
Median hourly wage: $36.04
Total annual necessities cost: $48,679
Salary needed to live comfortably: $97,358
Average hours you need to work in a week: 51.95
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Arizona
Median hourly wage: $32.59
Total annual necessities cost: $41,032
Salary needed to live comfortably: $82,065
Average hours you need to work in a week: 48.42
Arkansas
Median hourly wage: $28.20
Total annual necessities cost: $31,774
Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,547
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.4
California
Median hourly wage: $38.75
Total annual necessities cost: $56,077
Salary needed to live comfortably: $112,154
Average hours you need to work in a week: 55.66
Colorado
Median hourly wage: $37.23
Total annual necessities cost: $39,605
Salary needed to live comfortably: $79,210
Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.92
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Connecticut
Median hourly wage: $37.19
Total annual necessities cost: $39,605
Salary needed to live comfortably: $42,858
Average hours you need to work in a week: 44.32
Delaware
Median hourly wage: $32.81
Total annual necessities cost: $37,480
Salary needed to live comfortably: $74,959
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.94
Florida
Median hourly wage: $31.93
Total annual necessities cost: $38,072
Salary needed to live comfortably: $76,144
Average hours you need to work in a week: 45.86
Georgia
Median hourly wage: $31.10
Total annual necessities cost: $33,198
Salary needed to live comfortably: $66,396
Average hours you need to work in a week: 41.06
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Hawaii
Median hourly wage: $36.48
Total annual necessities cost: $75,549
Salary needed to live comfortably: $151,097
Average hours you need to work in a week: 79.65
Idaho
Median hourly wage: $31.57
Total annual necessities cost: $36,687
Salary needed to live comfortably: $73,373
Average hours you need to work in a week: 44.69
Illinois
Median hourly wage: $33.84
Total annual necessities cost: $33,916
Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,832
Average hours you need to work in a week: 38.55
Indiana
Median hourly wage: $30.02
Total annual necessities cost: $33,741
Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,482
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.23
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Iowa
Median hourly wage: $29.66
Total annual necessities cost: $33,275
Salary needed to live comfortably: $66,549
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.15
Kansas
Median hourly wage: $29.68
Total annual necessities cost: $32,104
Salary needed to live comfortably: $64,209
Average hours you need to work in a week: 41.60
Kentucky
Median hourly wage: $28.77
Total annual necessities cost: $32,512
Salary needed to live comfortably: $65,024
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.46
Louisiana
Median hourly wage: $28.09
Total annual necessities cost: $33,513
Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,025
Average hours you need to work in a week: 45.89
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Maine
Median hourly wage: $31.33
Total annual necessities cost: $41,290
Salary needed to live comfortably: $82,580
Average hours you need to work in a week: 50.69
Maryland
Median hourly wage: $35.12
Total annual necessities cost: $44,876
Salary needed to live comfortably: $89,751
Average hours you need to work in a week: 49.15
Massachusetts
Median hourly wage: $41.05
Total annual necessities cost: $58,5670
Salary needed to live comfortably: $117,140
Average hours you need to work in a week: 54.88
Michigan
Median hourly wage: $32.18
Total annual necessities cost: $33.601
Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,202
Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.16
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Minnesota
Median hourly wage: $37.46
Total annual necessities cost: $34,907
Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,8154
Average hours you need to work in a week: 35.84
Mississippi
Median hourly wage: $25.85
Total annual necessities cost: $31,596
Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,192
Average hours you need to work in a week: 47.01
Missouri
Median hourly wage: $31.67
Total annual necessities cost: $32,671
Salary needed to live comfortably: $65,342
Average hours you need to work in a week: 39.68
Montana
Median hourly wage: $31.91
Total annual necessities cost: $38,421
Salary needed to live comfortably: $76,841
Average hours you need to work in a week: 46.31
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Nebraska
Median hourly wage: $31.83
Total annual necessities cost: $33,446
Salary needed to live comfortably: $66,891
Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.41
Nevada
Median hourly wage: $29.69
Total annual necessities cost: $39,430
Salary needed to live comfortably: $78,860
Average hours you need to work in a week: 51.08
New Hampshire
Median hourly wage: $34.31
Total annual necessities cost: $41,926
Salary needed to live comfortably: $83,852
Average hours you need to work in a week: 47.00
New Jersey
Median hourly wage: $35.77
Total annual necessities cost: $43,568
Salary needed to live comfortably: $87,136
Average hours you need to work in a week: 46.85
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New Mexico
Median hourly wage: $27.68
Total annual necessities cost: $34,792
Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,584
Average hours you need to work in a week: 48.34
New York
Median hourly wage: $37.83
Total annual necessities cost: $49,703
Salary needed to live comfortably: $99,407
Average hours you need to work in a week: 50.53
North Carolina
Median hourly wage: $32.15
Total annual necessities cost: $35,686
Salary needed to live comfortably: $71,373
Average hours you need to work in a week: 42.69
North Dakota
Median hourly wage: $33.54
Total annual necessities cost: $35,394
Salary needed to live comfortably: $70,788
Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.59
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Ohio
Median hourly wage: $31.13
Total annual necessities cost: $34,784
Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,568
Average hours you need to work in a week: 42.98
Oklahoma
Median hourly wage: $30.15
Total annual necessities cost: $31,645
Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,289
Average hours you need to work in a week: 40.37
Oregon
Median hourly wage: $35.45
Total annual necessities cost: $44,609
Salary needed to live comfortably: $89,218
Average hours you need to work in a week: 48.40
Pennsylvania
Median hourly wage: $31.44
Total annual necessities cost: $35,297
Salary needed to live comfortably: $70,594
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.18
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Rhode Island
Median hourly wage: $35.35
Total annual necessities cost: $40,590
Salary needed to live comfortably: $81,180
Average hours you need to work in a week: 44.16
South Carolina
Median hourly wage: $30.20
Total annual necessities cost: $34,893.10
Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,786
Average hours you need to work in a week: 44.44
South Dakota
Median hourly wage: $30.90
Total annual necessities cost: $34,648
Salary needed to live comfortably: $69,296
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.13
Tennessee
Median hourly wage: $30.23
Total annual necessities cost: $33,060.02
Salary needed to live comfortably: $66,120
Average hours you need to work in a week: 42.06
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Texas
Median hourly wage: $32.83
Total annual necessities cost: $34,121
Salary needed to live comfortably: $68,242
Average hours you need to work in a week: 39.97
Utah
Median hourly wage: $33.86
Total annual necessities cost: $38,671
Salary needed to live comfortably: $77,343
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.93
Vermont
Median hourly wage: $33.68
Total annual necessities cost: $44,416
Salary needed to live comfortably: $88,831
Average hours you need to work in a week: 50.72
Virginia
Median hourly wage: $34.10
Total annual necessities cost: $38,387
Salary needed to live comfortably: $76,774
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.30
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Washington
Median hourly wage: $41.24
Total annual necessities cost: $44,740
Salary needed to live comfortably: $89,479
Average hours you need to work in a week: 41.73
West Virginia
Median hourly wage: $28.22
Total annual necessities cost: $31,858
Salary needed to live comfortably: $63,716
Average hours you need to work in a week: 43.42
Wisconsin
Median hourly wage: $33.07
Total annual necessities cost: $35,971
Salary needed to live comfortably: $71,943
Average hours you need to work in a week: 41.84
Wyoming
Median hourly wage: $30.71
Total annual necessities cost: $33,845
Salary needed to live comfortably: $67,690
Average hours you need to work in a week: 42.39
Cameron Huddleston contributed to the reporting for this article.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The Average Hours You Need To Work To Live Comfortably in Every State
