Single people need to make this much to live comfortably in Kansas City, study says

All the single ladies (and fellas) in Kansas City have to earn quite a bit to live comfortably, according to a new study.

An analysis using the MIT Living Wage Calculator by finance website SmartAsset analyzed the basic cost of living for each state in the United States, both for a single person with no children and a couple with two children. The data includes costs of necessities that cover housing, food, transportation, income taxes and other items.

The analysis by SmartAsset applied the 50/30/20 rule to determine how much an individual must earn to live comfortably in each state in 2024. The rule recommends spending about 50% of your income on basic needs like food and housing, 30% on wants and the remaining 20% on savings or paying down debt.

How do Kansas and Missouri compare?

Missouri ranked 37th on the list, while Kansas ranked 34th, based on the data.

While the states are less expensive compared to the rest of the country, a single Missouri resident will need to make $40.40 an hour and a Kansas resident will need to make $40.70 an hour to live comfortably in their respective states.

The salaries a single resident needs to make? $84,656 in Kansas and $84,032 in Missouri. For a family with two adults and two children, you will need to make $196,768 in Kansas and $202,259 in Missouri.

This is different than a living wage, which is much lower in the KC area, according to the MIT calculator. Here’s what else the data says.

What’s the living wage around Kansas City?

A living wage is defined by MIT as “what one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family’s minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient.”

MIT’s living wage calculator shows how much the living wage is for a single resident in states, counties and cities. The living wage for a single Kansas Citian is $21.70, and the required annual income after taxes for a living wage is $38,295.

The average living wage in the state of Missouri is $20.20 an hour and the required annual income after taxes is $35,889. On the Kansas side, the average living wage is $20.35 and the required annual income is $35,933 after taxes.

The calculator has living wages and salaries posted for each of the five counties in the Kansas City area:

• Clay County: $21.78 per hour, $38,515 salary
  
  

• Jackson County: $20.93 per hour, $37,092 salary

• Platte County: $22.46 per hour, $39,653 salary

• Johnson County: $22.89 per hour, $40,157 salary

• Wyandotte County: $20.57 per hour, $36,297 salary

In every KC area county, the typical salary that residents actually earn is higher than the living wage, according to data from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center and Kansas Department of Commerce. Missouri’s data covers the average pay in private and public industries in 2022, and Kansas’ is based on the median pay for all employers as of May 2023.

• Clay County: $28.52 per hour, $59,330 salary

• Jackson County: $32.05 per hour, $66,654 salary

• Platte County: $28.33 per hour, $58,935 salary

• Johnson County: $22.62 per hour, $47,049 salary

• Wyandotte County: $22.87 per hour, $47,577 salary