When the Math doesn't Math
Counting on fingers and toes, while paying an arm and a leg
Let’s face it, y’all: the math isn’t mathing. Yes, I’m aware that the grammar isn’t grammaring there, but the writer in me and the discontent within me are at war over my soul.
We are in a maelstrom of inflation, greedflation1, a volatile housing market, the throws of a pandemic bucking itself back into the spotlight and governments that don’t seem to care how many working people slip between the cracks and fall into an endless abyss of debt imprisonment and homelessness.
The Report Is In
I’m deep-diving my way through a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition2, and… it ain’t great, y’all3. They released a report recently titled “Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing”, and if that title doesn’t give you pause: buckle up, buttercup.
In the report, the NLIHC asks “How Much Do You Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?” And that question makes me queasy already. If you want to take a look at it yourself, you can visit their website and look at the nifty interactive map that threw me: https://nlihc.org/oor.
I am from Texas, Y’all.4 I’m looking at the data here, and here are few major points - via Anja Taylor of the Texas Homeless Network - to highlight just how crazy housing affordability has gotten5:
There is not a single county in Texas where minimum-wage workers can afford a modest two-bedroom rental.
A full-time worker in Texas earning minimum wage needs to work nearly 3.5 full-time jobs or approximately 138 hours per week to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment at fair-market rent.
10 of the 20 most common occupations have median wages lower than what full-time workers need to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment
When you need to have 3-and-a-half minimum wage jobs just to afford a place to live, that math doesn’t math.
Download the Report
See the report for yourself, y’all.6
Source: https://nlihc.org/oor
Y’all counter: 2
Y’all counter: 3 and that’s a Capital Y y’all!
teehee another Y’all counter: 3
Your subtitle says it all - "counting on fingers and toes, while paying an arm and a leg"! We've been redoing our budget as we pivot toward some incredible positive change, but it's still math'd from a place of asking exactly how much we need, as a family of four in Indiana with a mortage, to simply break even every year, not including fuel or groceries. That number? $30,000. With the minimum wage in Indiana being $7.25/hour, we know we're fortunate to be making almost three times the minimum...for body-breaking work that recently landed my husband in the hospital with zero PTO for it (happy thirty-first birthday to him, right?). And none of that allows for savings or anything "extra." What part of today's economy allows for any average American to dream anymore? It's akin to a nightmare when that "incredible positive change" means *maybe* being without food insecurity finally.
You got that right Mr Fike! The economy should be measured by minimum wage earners affording a decent place to live. A little less million dollar bonuses and 25 million dollar exit packages for CEOs could go a long way in increasing minimum wage to balance out that problem.