AUSTIN (KXAN) — Making minimum wage, you would need to work almost four full-time jobs to comfortably afford the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment in Austin, a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows. Austin was the worst ranked city for low-income renters in the entire state of Texas.
The report said monthly rent for a two-bedroom in the Austin/Round Rock area was $1,434.
So how much do you need to make to not work four jobs? According to the report, $28 an hour — that’s roughly $57,000 a year. Minimum wage currently sits at $7.25 an hour in Texas.
The report, called ‘Out Of Reach,’ was produced by a group that advocates for affordable housing and highlights inequities in housing.
The study noted that Black and Latino workers faced larger gaps in wages versus living costs than their white counterparts. They also reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened that gap.
As part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, the federal minimum wage would increase to $15 by 2025. Many in Congress and elsewhere say that’s just too much.
Some companies in Austin have already bumped minimum wage voluntarily. In March of this year, P. Terry’s pushed its up to $15 an hour.
Meanwhile, a UT Professor who contributed to the Congressional Budget Report in 2019 told KXAN that raising minimum wage to $15 an hour Texas-wide would force the loss 100-150,000 jobs.
You can find the full report, Out of Reach 2021, here.